Vampire Love Child
by Shari Maxwell
Summary: Duo's finally settled in with Heero as his companion, but will he be able to take the final plunge and become a fullfledged vampire? And what will he do when he brings Heero home a little surprise? HeeroxDuoThe long awited sequel to Vampire's Servant!
1. Chapter 1

Life as a vampire wasn't what you would normally expect. Instead of dramatic nights of seducing women and then draining their blood, Duo found himself wandering around the streets alone.

The crisp winter air bit into his pale skin as Duo jammed his hands into the pockets of his coat. Being only a half-vampire still Duo was able to still live almost exactly like a human except that he still needed blood to survive, and that he had become inexplicably pale.

He couldn't stand it that Heero was forcing him to get used to leaving the castle only at night. Even though he knew why Heero was doing it, Duo wasn't able to stop himself from constantly grumbling about it once Heero left.

Even now there was nobody out on the street and Duo found himself remembering the times when he lived out on the same street. Though that had been almost a year ago as this was around the time Heero had first taken Duo to become a half-vampire. Things had changed quite a bit around the town as many of the familiar faces Duo used to see all the time had disappeared.

Perhaps it had been after the incident of the Winner family, but a lot of people had been frightened off while the same news also brought more tourists to visit thinking it all a myth. So while it drove off most of the older residents, it brought several more to take their place.

After reminiscing for a while Duo found himself wandering back towards the castle where he knew the only company he could really get was Quatre and Sally. It's not like he didn't want _their_ companionship, but right now he wanted to be with the one he truly loved.

"I should probably start heading back since Heero will be pissed when he finds out I've been out here." The half-vampire was swiftly making his way to his home, but he had this odd feeling that someone was following him. Yet there wasn't anyone who would ever dare to go out this late at night knowing the legends of the vampires.

Contrary to what Duo thought, as he continued walking he heard someone clumsily trying to stalk him. After hearing the person trip, Duo whipped around and gave a look that would kill to find he had targeted a kid.

The child was a young boy no older than ten who was dressed in tattered clothes, and apparently was an orphan. As he looked up at Duo with fearful eyes and it was obvious that the boy wasn't really sure who Duo was.

"Are you lost?" It was a dumb question because anyone with eyes could see that he wasn't, but Duo didn't know what else to say.

The kid got up and continued to give him a frightened stare, but to the half-vampire's surprise he actually answered. "No... The other kids dared me to follow you back to your cave..."

At first Duo was confused by what the child meant, but then he understood. Once again, the common mistake that a vampire actually turned into bats and slept in a cave. Yet he couldn't get angry with a child, because he remembered when the same thing happened to him constantly being dared to do crazy things.

"I don't live in a cave, but you can tell them you found the cave anyway. If you tell them you'll show them they'll probably be too scared." Duo smiled at the kid and then turned away knowing he really needed to get back.

But it seemed the kid wasn't ready to tell a lie to probably the closest friends he had. Duo hated it, but he couldn't have the kid follow him all the way back or else he'd get in trouble with Heero. It got to the point where they were near the outskirts of the town and still this orphan refused to stop following him.

Finally Duo had to stop once again and turn around to talk to him, "You can't follow me all the way to my 'cave', alright?"

"So you really _are_ a vampire!" The boy's face lit up with this look of utter exhilaration as he was in the presence of the supernatural.

"Will you go home if I say I am a vampire?"

The boy didn't answer, but he eagerly shook his head.

"Okay then... I'm a vampire, now go home."

Once again the half-vampire began to leave and this time he didn't hear footsteps following him, but he also didn't hear any leaving. He turned around and saw the orphan just standing there as if he'd just witness the whole world die around him, so Duo had no choice but to ask.

"I thought you said you'd go home." Duo tried not to let the pity he was feeling for the boy show. He'd lived his whole life on the streets, and he knew it was a tough world for a boy his age.

"I lied... I wasn't dared to follow you anywhere... I just followed you around because I've watched you walking around for the past few nights alone, and I was hoping I could join you since I'm all alone too." The orphan seemed to be playing his sympathy card well, and Duo couldn't make himself immune to it.

"Then where did you get the idea I'm a vampire?" Duo worded the question carefully; because he didn't want to accidentally let it slip he was at least half vampire.

The boy was silent and his eyes instantly averted from Duo's dark eyes to the ground. He almost looked as if he'd wish the earth would swallow him whole before having to answer that question. "One night I saw you break into the butcher's shop, and I saw you drinking the blood that was drained from the meat..."

Now it was Duo's turn to be quiet as he couldn't believe he'd been as careless as to let a child watch him drinking blood. While he still refused to drink even a little bit of human blood, Duo needed blood to live and so he drank animals.

But then it hit him... If the boy had been able to sneak around and watch him break into stores when he'd been so careful... This orphan had _intentionally_ allowed Duo to notice him tonight.

Before Duo could say anything to the child, he suddenly heard sniffing and looked over to see the boy crying. In reality he was just bawling his soul out, and it scared Duo that someone would wake up and see them. So without having any better options, the half-vampire ran over and scooped up the boy and then began to run away from the town. As soon as he was doing so, the boy stopped crying so loudly and Duo knew he'd been played with what was most likely the kid's trump card.

He put the orphan down and then the kid gave him a huge grin as if he'd accomplished something.

"That was a dirty trick," Duo tried to be stern with the child, but in his mind he was just thinking about how great the kid had manipulated him.

"But it worked, right?"

Duo sighed and sat down on a large boulder on the side of the path, "What will it take to make you leave me alone?"

"There's nothing you can do... I want to live with you mister."

He didn't want to outright say no because something was making him seriously think about it. Even knowing Heero would strangle him if he suddenly brought some orphan home; Duo didn't think he'd be able to leave the kid all alone out here.

"I know I'm going to regret this, but... come on. I've got to hurry up before Heero gets back." Duo grabbed the child's hand and began to pull him along when he remembered that he didn't know the kid's name. "What is your name, kid?"

"It's Thomas," He smiled at Duo brightly and left the half-vampire at a loss for words.

Heero was definitely going to kill him.

----

Arriving at the castle Duo could see that Heero still hadn't come back yet. Yet as he opened the door the first thing he got was Thomas shoving him out of the way and running into the entrance hall with wide eyes. The orphan obviously had never been in such an extravagant place before, but Duo wasn't quite ready for everyone in the castle to see him.

"Thomas, get over here! You must be exhausted, so let's go to my room and you can get a good night's rest." Duo grabbed the boy by the wrist and led him up the stairs. Immediately Duo went straight for his old room (which he rarely stayed in now), and as soon as the two of them were through the door he shut the door and locked it.

"This is really your room?! It's so big!"

Duo was digging through his wardrobe for something that might fit the kid at least a little bit to get him out of those rags. Finally after throwing quite a bit of clothes on the floor, Duo found a shirt that would at least be able to cover the boy up as make-shift pajamas.

First though, was making the boy take a bath before even having him put on new clothes. Thomas had been fascinated with Duo's large bed the whole time until Duo finally turned to face him.

"Listen Thomas, you need to take a bath and then you can go to bed. Okay?" Duo smiled at the orphan and the boy just smiled back at him. "I'll go draw your bath and give you some nice warm water."

Duo did as he had promised Thomas and as he went to get the boy, Duo came upon a scene where Thomas was sitting on the bed crying. Just a few minutes before he'd been fine, and yet now he as bawling again.

"What's wrong?" The half-vampire tried to sound calm as he walked over to the bed. He slipped his arm around the boy and like he'd always imagined a parent would do to comfort their child. "You were fine just a while ago, so what happened Tommy?"

"I just- don't want to- be-" Thomas was having a lot of trouble talking to where Duo could understand because of all the sniffling. "I don't want- to be kicked out- like always."

That, Duo _did_ understand. It was a fear that any orphan shared when they were his age. There had been several times when Duo himself had been taken in by someone only to be kicked out after a couple of days. Obviously this kid had gone through it enough times as well for his lifetime.

"Listen Thomas, I promise you that I will not put you out on the streets again. You're welcome to live here for as long as you want, and may leave whenever _you_ want to go." Duo looked down at the boy to see a hopeful smile, and then was surprised when he hugged Duo tightly while snuggling into him.

"Thanks so much!"

He then let go of Duo and jumped off the bed running towards the bathroom, but before he made it through the door Duo called after him.

"By the way, my name is Duo. And please don't drown in there!"

It was going to be hard to explain the whole situation to Heero without letting it show that he'd done something that he _knew_ he shouldn't have. But what was he supposed to do? Leave the kid all on his own on the streets?

As many orphans as he'd seen killed or overworked to death... Duo couldn't allow a boy who had asked him for just a place to live. After all, there were so many spare rooms in this house and nobody was going to come stay here anytime soon.

Thomas took about fifteen minutes in his bath before slowly cracking the door to cautiously peek out at Duo.

"Could you help me dry off?"

"Sure," Duo smiled in a friendly manner and then went into the bathroom after Thomas had moved out of the way.

He grabbed a towel that was folded up waiting to be used, and then snatched another one off the same shelf. One towel was used to wrap around Thomas' head to keep his somewhat long hair from constantly dripping on the floor, while Duo proceeded to dry off the boy's body with the other.

"Duo...? Could I call you dad?" He had such an innocent look in his eyes as he asked, and Duo found himself unable to resist.

"If you want to, then go right ahead." Again he gave the boy a soft smile before buttoning up the nightshirt. "Now stop stalling and go to bed."

As the two of them walked out into the bedroom, Thomas crawled into bed and then stared at Duo as the half-vampire tried to leave. Duo stopped because he knew what the orphan wanted, so he went back to the bed and got in with the boy.

Duo remained there with Thomas for only a little while before he fell asleep, giving Duo the chance to leave unnoticed. As soon as he stepped out of the room he came face to face with Sally who was already giving him a scrutinizing glare. Her blonde hair was hanging freely which was unusual since she usually wore it in braids.

"I heard someone taking a bath, and yet you're not even a little bit wet." Sally tried to be serious, but it was obvious that her hair was getting on her nerves as she kept brushing it out of her face. "You'd best explain who else is in there Duo."

He tried not to look guilty, but it didn't seem to faze Sally at all. And maybe he could get an idea of how Heero would react by comparing it to Sally's reaction.

"Well... I was walking around town and I kind of..." Duo trailed off before murmuring the rest, "picked up an orphan."

Sally lost her stern look and instead let out an exasperated sigh. "Duo... could you have done anything more irresponsible? Did you even think about the consequences of doing this? For once I wish you'd think things through before doing something."

"Will you stop lecturing me?! What was I supposed to do, just leave him there? How could I live with myself if he ended up starving to death or something?!"

The half-vampire couldn't really explain why he felt a sudden rage about what Sally had said, but it had thoroughly pissed him off. Before she had a chance to get a word in edgewise Duo ended up stomping off to the room he and Heero shared.

He plopped down on the bed and just buried his head in his arms. In his fury he had began to cry, but Duo hadn't even noticed. Duo didn't care to remember his past as it was only made of horrible memories. Days when he was almost to the point of starvation because he couldn't make himself steal even if for survival.

All the other memories were of the other children constantly taunting him, and being forced into the shadows of the other people. Nobody wanted an orphan by their shop or else it brought bad business. Nobody wanted an orphan around their 'normal' children, because it would contaminate them.

Nobody wanted to see an orphan. Nobody cared to hear the orphan cried. The plain truth is... nobody cares about the helpless child all alone in the world.

As these thoughts were running through his mind, there was a person's hand suddenly running from the small of his back up to his neck. Duo whipped his head around to find Heero with an unusually soft smile.

The vampire sat beside Duo on the bed, and then kissed Duo tenderly on the lips. "Sally told me you weren't feeling well, are you alright now?"

Duo half nodded into the bed and felt could already feel himself forgetting about his rage. That was the great thing about being in love with Heero, so every time Heero's presence was even near Duo would calm. He could never be truly angry or upset with Heero there.

Heero had become a lot more passionate and open with his emotions, but as soon as there were other people around anyone else this gentle side shut off. Right now was one of those moments where the vampire master wasn't afraid of being vulnerable.

"I just need to sleep for a few hours, and just not think about tonight."

The young man rolled onto his back and allowed his arms to flop limply over his head. Heero was slipping off his shirt when Duo noticed the vampire hesitate for a second and a slight cringe.

"Are you hurt Heero?" Duo sat up, genuinely concerned, but Heero just shook his head. "If you're lying to me, I'll find out."

"I'm not lying, Duo. I was just thinking about something I forgot to do while I was out."

Heero had never actually told Duo where he goes at night all the time. Ever since Duo had been brought to the castle, Heero never went back to the town that Duo was born in. It had always made him wonder why, but he'd never bothered to directly ask the vampire.

But if Heero was going somewhere where he was getting hurt... _Where_ was he going?

Though Duo never did get to voice his questions because Heero was on top of him before he had a chance.

----

That next morning Duo was snuggled against Heero completely in heaven, when he suddenly remembered.

_Thomas!_

Duo sat up suddenly startling Heero awake, but by the time the vampire figured out what was going on Duo had already shot out the door.

He ran down the corridor ignoring the fact that the light was giving him a pounding headache, and then burst into his room. As he looked around he found that Thomas was missing from the room, but Duo had no idea where the boy would have gone.

When he thought back to his arriving at the castle, the first time he'd actually had a chance to roam around he ended up in the kitchen.

"Of course he'd go wherever he smelled food... any hungry person would."

With that line of reasoning Duo nearly knocked over two or three of the servants cleaning as he barreled down the staircase. Already he heard the noise of breakfast being made by Hilde, the chef of the castle.

Once he was within a few feet of the door, Duo could hear voices and it made him panic. He tried to stop, but instead ended up tripping on his own feet and crashing straight into the door.

At first all he could think about was the intense pain that he was feeling, and then he managed to open his eyes and find Hilde and Thomas. The two of them looked absolutely surprised as neither of them moved to help him.

"Master Duo, what are you doing?" Hilde got up and rushed over to the fallen half-vampire.

"Thomas, you should've stayed in the room... if Heero sees you he'll be pissed off at me for sure." Duo accepted the chef's helping hand as he looked at the orphan's stunned expression. "Come on, we have to hide you before Heero gets up and sees you."

Everything just seemed to suddenly click in Hilde's mind, as Duo watched the light bulb click on. "You mean Master Heero doesn't know he's here?! Master Duo what were you thinking?!"

Duo didn't have time to reply as he heard a worried voice call his name, and once he realized it was Heero the half-vampire knew he had only a few seconds to hide the kid. Without really thinking it through, Duo shoved the kid behind a tall counter beside him and gave him a warning look that he'd better not move.

Heero pushed open the door and as soon as he saw Hilde whatever emotion that was on his face disappeared completely. The vampire was obviously suspicious of Duo now that he'd completely freaked out for no reason.

"Why did you go tearing through the castle? Usually you're not even capable of getting up for breakfast."

"Well today I woke up and I am just so hungry I can barely even stand it. So I needed something to eat and I ran down here to... get something?" Duo knew how lame the excuse was, in fact he couldn't even believe he'd come up with something that bad.

Yet Heero's dark eyes just slowly continued to examine both Hilde and Duo's guilty expressions. "Next time just tell me and we can send someone to bring breakfast up to you."

The half-vampire nodded apologetically and when Heero grabbed onto his arm, Duo just looked back at the chef with a pleading look.

'_Please look after him for now.'_ Duo mouthed silently to Hilde as he was pulled out of the kitchen.

The chef gave him a small nod to let him know she understood what she needed to do, but before anyone could take another step Thomas asked a little too loudly.

"When can I come out?"

Heero stopped in his tracks and immediately let go of Duo, and pushed past Hilde to get his first glimpse of the orphan. Already the realization was dawning on the vampire's face, and then there was an indescribable look that Duo had never before witnessed.

"You brought a human to _my_ castle without my permission? And you weren't even going to tell me... were you _Duo_?" The vampire had a look that just made Duo glad that looks couldn't kill.

Dumbly, Duo just chewed on his bottom lip unable to find the words to explain himself properly. There was a moment of silence that suffocated everyone with the tension as Hilde had managed to back out of her master's line of vision, and left Duo alone to face the vampire's wrath.

"I was going to tell you Heero... but I figured it wouldn't be a good time to drop this kind of news to you right now... You've admitted yourself that you're really unreasonable in the morning because you haven't gotten enough sleep."

"You're not going to twist my words Duo to fit your own needs right now. The fact is you brought some child here without even telling _me_, as far as I'm concerned my mood is not the issue here."

----

**Finally the first chapter of the long awaited sequel to Vampire's Servant is written! I'm sorry for the long wait for this update, but I finally sat down and wrote it. **

**The reason it took so long was because for a while I had writer's block, and I just couldn't figure out what I wanted this sequel to be about. When all of a sudden... it hit me! I wanted to add another main character into the story along with wrapping up some loose ends, so I added Thomas. (sorry for the lame name.)**

**But in later chapters I will you guys a glimpse into the pasts of Heero, Duo, and a few other characters in order to understand them better. Anyways, enough spoilers, right? **

**I hope everyone enjoyed!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	2. Chapter 2

The only effective way to describe how the rest of that conversation went would be... disastrous.

Luckily for Duo it hadn't turned into a violent altercation physically, just verbally. It was now evident to Duo that Heero would probably throw the kid back out onto the streets, but he couldn't bring himself to accept that future. All his life he'd been in the same situation as that kid, so how could he leave that boy alone? And the half-vampire had already promised Thomas not to abandon him.

Except his main problem was finding a way to make Heero to let the boy live with them. Obviously it had been a big betrayal of Heero's trust when Duo brought a person into the vampire's castle without even telling him. But how do you tell a person that you just brought an orphan home because you pitied him? How do you tell this to a _vampire_?

Yet now Heero had already stormed off to his room, leaving Duo, Thomas, and Hilde in the kitchen. All three of them were still in a daze from the furious tension Heero had created in the room. It was until Thomas began to cry silently that Duo snapped out of the trance he'd been in.

That was when Duo felt a wave of conviction washed over him that he left the room and went straight for Heero's room. He heard Hilde yelling at him not to do it and to stop, but he paid her no mind.

As soon as he reached the door, the half-vampire swung it open and the slammed it behind him. Heero was quick to glare at him and was going to say something else to Duo, but the half-vampire didn't give him the chance as he punched him in the face.

"I can't believe you'd be so fucking selfish and arrogant to act like that! You have so much room in this castle so why can't we share it with a child who needs our help? But I bet you could never understand that kind of longing to have a home and a family would you? I doubt you've ever experienced something as painful as that!"

Duo couldn't help but yell at Heero after how the vampire had acted with him. Yet the reaction from Heero came as a shock to the half-vampire as the he just remained silent.

"You really care about that kid, don't you?" Heero probably didn't intend to, but Duo could hear hints of envy in the question.

"Of course, I can empathize with him since I lived the past ten or more years in the same circumstance."

"Then I suppose he can... he can stay." Duo felt such an overwhelming feeling of delight that he kissed his lover on the lips. But Heero didn't let Duo do anything else as he spoke again. "But he'd best stay away from me. I still don't want to interact with some human not worth my time."

Duo hadn't expected Heero to even allow Thomas to stay with them, so he ignored the last part of what Heero said. It was just a good thing that Duo had actually persuaded the vampire after their huge argument.

It was still obvious how reluctant and uncomfortable Heero was with the thought of a young boy running around everywhere, but Duo promised to make it up to him.

----

Sally had been completely confused by Duo's behavior the night before, but after she thought about it that night she knew why. Duo had been an orphan the majority of his life and compared himself to the child he'd brought home.

Whether he realized it or not though, Duo was being selfish on his part. Bringing a young boy such as that into a world full of vampires and horrors no human should experience... As often as people hunted down their kind Duo should have thought about that possibility, and how people would react were the boy ever to speak of living with vampires.

People wouldn't just ignore him and ostracize him; there was the possibility that kid might be killed if he told people about his new 'family'. Yet when Sally later heard from the servants who were whispering about it that Master Heero was going to allow Master Duo to keep the child... She wondered if that was the real Heero.

From the short time she'd been roaming the castle; Sally had discovered things about Heero's personality. He was the kind of vampire that preferred to keep humans as far away from his territory as possible. And if a person ever did venture up here, they were usually thrown into the dungeon where she'd been stuck in.

Duo was an unusual case though as he had an enormous amount of influence over Heero, and this was just another example of how he usually got his way. Since he was Heero's lover, and Heero was the master of all of the vampires in this area it wasn't a surprise to most.

But Sally was still bothered by it sometimes. It also made her wonder about how long the two of them could really be together since Duo had yet to even become a full vampire. Being only a half-vampire, Duo didn't age normally and had some abilities beyond that of humans, but it was nothing compared to Heero.

Heero would never age or die unless somebody actually did murder him or he was out in the sun for too long, and he was physically and mentally superior to any human. So she couldn't figure out how Duo was ever going to keep up with Heero unless he finally allowed Heero to change him into a vampire.

It wasn't fair that Duo constantly ran around during the day while Heero was almost always confined to the darkness of his room. Even this morning with all the commotion the half-vampire had caused, Heero had to cover his body completely and even use his coat to shield himself from any sunlight.

That's where she came in. Heero has specifically asked her about preparing Duo for becoming a vampire. He already knew Duo wasn't going to be ready to throw away what little humanity he had left on a whim.

All Sally knew was that Duo was lucky to have someone like Heero by his side for eternity. Yet she was positive the half-vampire hadn't even considered that possibility, but Sally wasn't sure whether now would be the right time to have this sort of discussion.

But Heero had asked her to do it today no matter what, and that's what she intended to do. So that's why she was now in search of Duo, unable to find him anywhere Sally resorted to asking Quatre if he'd seen him anywhere. As she approached the library she already prepared herself for the stacks of books that were sure to be piled everywhere. As she pushed open the door, Sally already heard about ten books fall over with loud thuds, but it didn't even disturb the blonde sitting at the table reading.

He casually glanced up from the thick novel that he'd been completely focused on just a few minutes before. All the curtains were drawn to hide the sun from entering the room, now that Quatre had become more sensitive to the light he couldn't let even a little bit of sunlight seep through.

"Are you looking for Duo? You know he's not the type to usually read with his free time." Quatre had changed over the short amount of time he'd been a true vampire, and Sally supposed it came with becoming the living undead.

Even his innocent eyes had taken on a darker color of jade green and now he'd lost the childishness he'd had before. It wasn't as if he'd completely changed, but most of the time he was much more solemn than used to be.

"Actually I was wondering whether you've seen Duo since the commotion he'd caused earlier." Sally stole a chair and sat down across from Quatre. "You know at the rate you're reading these books, you'll probably be done with this library by the end of this month."

"Hopefully I'll be able to go out and get some more, but I'm not sure how much longer I want to linger here. I've been here long enough and I'm sure Master Heero wouldn't mind if I went off on my own for a while." The blonde shut the book without even thinking twice before getting a look of regret knowing it'd be impossible to find his place. "As for Duo... I last saw him go into Heero's room, so I wouldn't disturb them for now."

Sally had expected Quatre to leave much earlier than just now, but then again he probably hadn't left for Duo's sake. The half-vampire was awfully lonely whenever Heero wasn't around, but now the blonde may have found his chance with this new child to keep Duo company.

"It's a pity you've decided to leave so soon, but I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. Thanks for your help."

Quatre watched as Sally stood up and then asked, "What about you?"

"What about me?" She knew what he meant, but preferred not to think about it.

"I know you're ready to get out of here as well, so why haven't you yet? Master Heero and Duo are both generous people, but we all have different plans to spend eternity. You can't tell me you'd want to spend it here."

Sally didn't answer Quatre, because she knew her what would happen if she thought about it. All it would lead to is her desperation to accomplish her own impossible dreams, and she could no longer endure the pain that accompanied these thoughts.

"Actually, there's no place I'd rather be."

She left the blonde alone in the library with only a deceptive smile on her lips.

----

Now the new challenge was going to get Thomas and Heero to become acquainted with each other. It was obvious to Duo that the two were like opposite magnets and resisted each other with invisible force fields. Yet the half-vampire wasn't going to accept that as the reality, and was determined to make the two at least be able to tolerate each other.

First Duo told Heero to meet him at sunset in his old room, so that he could properly meet his adopted 'son' as Duo now called the orphan. Oddly enough, Thomas seemed to be the one who refused to do as Duo asked. The boy through a temper tantrum when the half-vampire first asked and he ended up locking himself in the bathroom.

"Come on Tommy, you have to act mature. You're almost eleven years old, right? Boys that age don't act like such babies over such a simple thing." Duo consoled him through the bathroom door, but it began to worry him once he no longer heard the orphan.

Just as he was thinking of breaking the door down, the lock clicked and then Thomas hesitantly opened the door. He had a look of shame on his face for acting the way he had, but Duo just smiled and held out his hand. The boy took it and smiled at his new foster father that had obviously forgiven him already.

"You're not mad, Daddy Duo?"

Duo knew he couldn't be mad even if he really wanted to, "No silly! Now let's change you out of that and go get some real breakfast. From now on I want you to be on your best behavior and don't wander off without at least telling me where you're going. This castle is big and you could easily get lost."

Thomas nodded eagerly as Duo turned in search of some clothes that might at least fit him a little more comfortably than what he was currently wearing. Unfortunately Duo just had to take a pair of his pants and ripped the legs in half, and the found a shirt that he left loose.

He made a mental note to go to town and search for some clothes that would fit a boy his age. After finally dressing Thomas, the two of them headed down to breakfast together where Duo once again reminded the boy he'd meet Heero tonight.

This time there was no refusing and screaming, but still Thomas didn't look happy about it. As the two ate their breakfast (although it was more like brunch now) in silence they were joined by Sally who was examined by Thomas from across the table.

Unlike Heero, Thomas seemed to take a liking to her as he relaxed after only a few minutes. Duo suspected it was because she had smiled at him sweetly it made Duo sick to his stomach. It was obvious she wasn't the type of person who liked to be around children, and Duo was going to make sure that didn't happen either.

Breakfast was quiet between the three of them other than the clinking of silverware on plates. The room was so silent that when Sally first spoke to Duo, he jumped a little.

"Duo, are you alright?" Genuine worry showed on her face after startling the half-vampire, but once he nodded to show everything was fine Sally went right to the point. "Listen, after we finish breakfast I need to speak to you privately about an important matter at hand."

"You don't have to be so secretive about everything Sally, because eventually I'm going to explain everything to Thomas anyway." Duo flashed a carefree grin at the vampire, but she shot him a look that quickly wiped the smile off his face.

"This is something extremely urgent and not something the child needs to be worrying about."

Duo sighed as he knew this conversation was probably going to be one he wouldn't really want to have, but he agreed to meet after they finished eating. Thomas was watching as the servants were now tying all of the curtains to keep out the sunlight. Even half-vampires weren't capable of handling too much light at once, but there weren't as severe consequences as with full vampires.

Some more servants were now gathering up the dishes as there was no one else coming downstairs to dine. Right now Heero was sleeping, and it was a rare sight to ever see Quatre emerge from the library other than at night. More than likely the blonde was fast asleep on a pile of books he'd been reading, and Duo couldn't help but smile at the thought.

Thomas had run up to the half-vampire and was now yanking on his shirt as hard as possible. When Duo finally looked down to assure the boy that he had his attention, the question Duo had dreaded would come up was asked.

"Daddy Duo, can we go to the town so I can show everyone I'm not an orphan anymore?" He had such pleading eyes, but when Sally cleared her throat loudly Duo knew it wouldn't be possible. "All the other children always made fun of me because I never had a mommy or daddy, but now I can show them they're wrong!"

"You know Thomas, let's talk about this later. Remember Sally already asked me if she and I could talk? Why don't you go hang out with Hilde in the kitchen, but _be careful_!"

The boy's look of disappointment had quickly disappeared once he heard he could go talk to Hilde some more. The castle chef seemed to be another person Thomas really liked, and it made Duo wonder why the boy refused to like men. Sally was swift as she grabbed the half-vampire's arm and pulled him away from the dining room.

Most likely she knew there wasn't going to be another chance like this anytime soon, and once again got straight to the point.

"Master Heero's worried about the relationship between you and him. He feels that it's time for you to become a full-fledged vampire to stay by his side forever, but he's not going to force this upon you until you're ready." Sally had a serious look as she turned away and left Duo alone.

"Become... a full vampire..." He repeated the words over and over in his head, but he just couldn't believe it. To be honest it had never occurred to Duo that he couldn't stay a half-vampire forever if he wished to be with Heero. Still he couldn't imagine himself living for an eternity as a vampire... but there wasn't any reason that he shouldn't be able to. He'd already halfway to becoming a vampire, so what would be so different about being completely vampire?

Thomas suddenly grabbed onto Duo's hand and tugged hard on his arm to the point he almost lost his balance. "Daddy Duo, who was that lady? She seemed really nice, but you don't like her, do you?"

"I like Sally it's just our conversation wasn't too pleasant..." He trailed off in the middle of his sentence as once again his thoughts distracted him. Another tug snapped Duo out of his trance and he continued, "Oh and make sure you call her Ms. Sally. I want you to treat everyone here with respect."

Perhaps the boy didn't really acknowledge any of what Duo had actually said as he just grinned happily. "Daddy Duo can you take me outside to see the garden? Hilde told me it's beautiful outside, but she can't go out often to see it. I'm going to pick her some flowers and bring them to her."

"That's sweet of you Tommy, but call her _Ms. _Hilde, remember?"

----

Quatre sighed as he snapped the book shut and got out of the chair he'd been sitting in for the past four hours. Finally able to stretch his legs now that he'd finished the book he heard some noise outside and went to the covered window. He was able to look down at the garden without being hit by the sunlight to see Duo and the new child he'd heard about.

Apparently Duo didn't know how to not be so gullible with children, because from what he figured that child had manipulated him well. Yet the blonde also knew the orphan would be a good thing for him because he had his own unfinished business with a certain person.

It had been so long since he'd seen those stunning emerald eyes of the vampire hunter that his heart ached from longing. He knew the vampire hunters had been told never to return to the castle by the fortune-teller in town, but Quatre could no longer bear to be away. Even from a distance Quatre knew he'd fallen for the one named Trowa Barton, and now that Duo had someone to be by his side...

Now he had the chance to go out and find Trowa. First off he'd have to get permission from Heero about it, because whether he liked it or not the vampire was still his master until Heero said he was free.

"Finally I'll be able to see you again... Trowa..."

----

**Chapter two is COMPLETE! I don't know about you guys, but I think this series has been going well so far. I haven't hit any obstacles so far with my ideas about the story, and it's nice that my muse hasn't began to hate me yet. **

**So I hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	3. Chapter 3

Heero was just unable to believe he'd allowed the worst possible thing to happen. A human living in _his _castle and it's a child no less! Sometimes Duo just won't listen to reason and things such as this end up happening. Yet the vampire had a hard time refusing Duo after he was reminded of his own past.

Not wanting to think about it, Heero decided he just needed to sleep for a few more hours until he felt like figuring out what to do with the current situation. As he fell onto his bed he felt an urgent longing for Duo to be there.

"Stupid body... you're just hungry for something that can't be yours yet." He knew that he was yearning to drink more of Duo's delicious blood, but the half-vampire had yet to agree to this. "Sally should've been able to at least mention it by now. Then again, that child is going to make things even more complicated since Duo will most likely spend a lot of time with him..."

There was nothing the vampire could say or do to make Duo abandon the orphan. Even though Heero knew the connection Duo felt because of his own childhood, the vampire knew that their world was not meant for a child. His theory of why vampires are infertile is for that very reason.

No young child should have to be in the world of the undead.

A world of death, suffering, and isolation; that most aren't able to handle. That's also the reason vampires take on permanent lovers, because if they don't find someone they end up alone. Usually a vampire will find someone by the early hundreds, but Heero had been later than most and for a while he'd feared the worst.

Along with finding a companion for eternity, a vampire is capable of losing himself completely without someone there. That had always been Heero's worst fear, and already he knew it was happening again. Constantly his body needed more blood to continue showing signs that he was own his way to becoming a monster.

So now it was only a matter of months before Heero was completely lost to his fate, and it meant Duo no longer had time to constantly change his mind about his choice. Either the half-vampire decided to become his eternal lover or else Heero had to destroy himself soon. Unlike most other vampires that are cowardly and allow this transformation to happen, Heero would never allow himself to taint Duo's world.

Even if Duo didn't want to join him.

"Shit... I'm thinking way too far ahead for my own good. People who do that tend to go insane trying to map out every possible future that may come..." Heero let out a sigh, something he didn't do often, and then rolled onto his side. "I might as well be dead than live alone without Duo by my side."

Just as he thought this he remembered the first time he'd learned of his curse, and even though most of that night was a blur... Heero still remembered that feeling of drowning in the possibility his destiny was to be nothing more than a mindless creature who feasted on the living.

----

_'It doesn't take long for it to completely control you Heero, so you'd best find someone soon.' The vampire who had brought him into the world of vampires just gave a smug look as he left the young man lying on the ground in shock. _

_He'd just died and yet... he could still see the man as he left him there so vulnerable and even heard the guy laugh at him. Was it really that funny that he had just killed some random person without reason?_

_Heero didn't believe that to be true, but the man laughed as if it was the most hilarious thing in the world. Not only to just kill somebody, but he had crushed Heero's future under the heel of his boot as he turned away._

_----_

Duo was sitting under the shade of a tree as he watched Thomas happily decide which flowers would be most suitable to decorate his room. It gave the half-vampire too much time to think, and that was the last thing he wanted right then. So after thinking hard about it, Duo came to the conclusion that the only way to distract him for the moment he would be to pick flowers with Thomas.

There were so many plants in the garden that Duo had never really taken the time to actually look at. In fact it made the half-vampire wonder why he had been too stupid to actually walk outside in the garden and relax.

Instead, he would usually coop himself up in the castle or go to town if Heero allowed him to go. Which again brought his attention back to the clothes problem Thomas was having, and this gave him the excuse to go 'shopping' tonight. Once again Heero might be uncomfortable with him going, but the vampire would know that Duo would refuse to take no for an answer at this point.

Especially once Heero saw the boy dressed in clothes that had been ripped up to fit him.

"Hey Thomas, would you like to go to town tonight after we see Heero?" Duo saw Thomas frown at the mention of Heero, but then the boy soon forgot as he thought about the question.

"Will I be able to tell everyone I have a daddy now?" The orphan's smile was hopeful, and it made it even harder on Duo to shake his head. "Why not, Daddy?"

"You just have to promise not to tell anyone, alright? Sometimes people have to keep secrets from other people for their own good... but I know you don't really understand yet. When you get older, you'll understand what I mean."

Another fear of Duo's was how will Thomas react once he'd old enough to realize what a vampire really is? Not to mention what would happen to Thomas were he to ever tell anyone in town about who his 'parents' are?

Surely they would not only ostracize him and despise the naive orphan; the people might actually be driven to point of killing even a young child for associating with the 'evil' vampires.

He wasn't going to trouble himself with thoughts of a grim future at that moment, and instead found himself being pulled by the wrist over to some flowers. They were just ordinary daisies except for the fact that they were some unusual shades of purple and Thomas wanted to pick one for Sally.

"Why don't you pick two or three? That way you won't have to be stuck on just choosing one." Duo watched Thomas' dilemma immediately solved by the look on the child's face. He reached out and carefully pulled on two and then handed them to Duo very cautiously.

"Can we give them to Ms. Sally now?"

The half-vampire hesitated and then shook his head, "Not now, but we can leave them in a vase in her room for her."

Thomas seemed happy with the alternate choice and then held Duo's hand as the two of them headed back inside. It took them quite a while to actually find a vase for the flowers, but finally they managed to find one that was just sitting empty on a table in the hall.

Duo decided not to let Thomas into Sally's room in case she became angry with someone for invading her space. So he put the task upon himself to place it in the room where Thomas was satisfied. After a few moments he decided the best place would just to leave it on her dresser in plain view, and then he left the room silently.

"Okay Thomas, now Ms. Sally will be able to see the gorgeous flowers you picked for her." He could feel himself smiling and couldn't really bring himself to think about how Sally might really react. She didn't seem like the type who liked flowers in her room, but perhaps Duo had the wrong impression about her.

His next thoughts were about Heero and how he was going to make all of this up to him, but Thomas wasn't giving him any time to really think. The boy was constantly tugging on his hand for attention, and after a few hours of being pulled all over the castle Duo was getting tired of it.

The half-vampire made sure not to lose his temper with Thomas, but he did suggest that the boy be with Hilde for a while. After a few more minutes of convincing Hilde to do him a big favor and look after Thomas until dinner, Duo was successful in his plan.

As he headed up the stairs he thought everything over again, Hilde would watch him until dinner, Thomas and Heero would properly meet at the meal, and then he would go into town with the orphan for clothes.

For what he was going to at the moment... Duo thought that maybe he should go see Heero in their room. In fact it was something he needed at that moment, and felt a grin on his face as he skipped two steps at a time while going up the stairs. As the half-vampire stopped to open the door he noticed Quatre walking down the hallway away from the library which was unusual for the blonde to do so at this time of day.

"Are you going to take a nap or something?" Duo asked playfully, but Quatre didn't seem to hear him as he just passed the half-vampire by.

Duo couldn't help but feel a little insulted, but he put it in the back of his mind as he decided to go into Heero's room.

----

Thomas just didn't understand the relationship between his new father and that other guy Heero. Just by looking at him, the orphan was able to tell that he would never be able to like Heero as much as he liked Duo. The man was one of those people who never have compassion for other people, and are only interested in their self-gain.

But listening to Hilde talk about the guy as if he was an angel... Thomas was getting tired of it. All he really wanted to do was be with Duo and go back out into the garden.

"You were in the garden for a long time with Duo already, and besides I'm surprised you're not excited to meet Master Heero." The chef smiled happily as she continued mixing spices into the food she was in the process of making. "Master Heero is generous and kind, not to mention attractive... but that's not my place to say."

"Why isn't it your place to say that?" The boy was genuinely curious about the expression Hilde got, and he automatically recognized it. Many people in town often carried that look on their faces whenever there was mention of the vampires.

"You wouldn't really understand Thomas... you're too young."

"Why do you keep calling that guy 'Master', but not Daddy Duo?"

Hilde looked thoughtful for a moment, "Well I have to call Master Heero by his real title since he brought me here. And Duo's scolded me many times for calling him by anything other than his name."

Even though Hilde had explained it to him, Thomas still didn't really understand the different statuses between Heero and Duo. Not to mention he still didn't really understand the relationship between his foster father and Heero.

Instead of asking Hilde, Thomas decided to go try to find Duo himself to ask. The chef wasn't paying attention for a few moments and it gave the orphan just enough time to slip out of the kitchen unnoticed. He walked quietly through the large hall until he reached the entrance hall, and then he wasn't quite sure where to go from there.

Already he knew that Duo was somewhere upstairs, but he couldn't say where for sure. There were two ways he could choose to go once he had ascended the stairs, and he chose to go to the left because he remembered Ms. Sally's room being that way as well. Perhaps if he could not find his father by himself, Thomas could just ask Ms. Sally for help and she could guide him.

Maneuvering the corridors was much more difficult than Thomas had originally anticipated, and soon found that he was lost. As he wandered around he noticed many people dressed in dull clothes, but all of them shied away from him whenever he got too close. He wasn't sure whether they just didn't like him or if they were all just really timid.

Either way he was going to have to corner one of them in order to get some information, and he managed to pick out one maid all alone. She had yet to notice him sneaking up on her, and so Thomas was thankful for the element of surprise.

"Ma'am please help me!" Thomas had gotten right beside her when he practically yelled at the maid, but her reaction wasn't what he'd expected.

She whipped around to face him and let out an angry hiss as she laid eyes on the boy. Thomas could see traces of abnormally sharp teeth and it was enough to make him realize his mistake. But already he could tell there wasn't any chance of escaping now that he'd created this mess.

"Back away from him _now_," A cold voice commanded the maid and instantly she returned to looking meek and frightened. Thomas looked over his shoulder at his savior and found it to be just the person he was looking for. "I could've sworn Duo warned you not to go off on your own."

"But I'm trying to find Daddy right now, and I got lost. So I asked this lady for help, but she was just being mean and scaring me." He pouted, trying to come out as the victim in the situation, but Sally didn't seem to be accepting it as the truth. "You've got to believe me, Ms. Sally! This lady really did it all on purpose just make me afraid of her."

"No, she did it in reaction to you frightening _her_. The servants of Master Heero know not to get out of control with anyone other than intruders, and so I find it odd she just happened to think of you as an invader." The blonde woman shooed away the humble maid and then grabbed Thomas' arm tightly. "We're going to have to talk with Duo, and have to get your behavior in check."

Thomas really didn't understand what was happening anymore... what happened to the nice lady at breakfast? Why was she acting like all of the other adults he'd ever been around? Duo wasn't mean like her, but her iron grip wasn't going to relent no matter what he did.

At least he'd be able to see his father now, and he knew how to push Duo's buttons to get sympathy. So he wasn't all that worried about his meeting with the foster father, and while pretending to struggle against Sally he tried to contain his excitement.

Finally he'd be able to talk with Duo and straighten everything out, and then they could go be together until he had to meet that guy Heero.

----

Quatre had passed Duo in the hall, but was too distracted to really be listening to the half-vampire. As he wandered through more of the corridors the blonde vampire then saw Sally struggling with the orphan Duo had adopted just recently and noticed similarities between the child and Duo.

In fact it was almost an exact replica of Duo minus the long hair and odd amethyst eyes. That was most likely the reason the half-vampire wasn't capable of leaving the pitiful child abandoned on the streets where every day was a fight just to survive. Duo saw himself in that child and had automatically wanted to protect what his mind probably thinks of as himself.

Sally seemed thoroughly agitated at the child as he dragged him along behind her, but Quatre could see the boy wasn't really reluctant to go with her. The truth was he was putting on a brilliant act for her just so he could go where he wanted to. He thought about pointing it out to the vampire, but Quatre decided it was not his business to interfere with Sally's affairs.

This made him start to wonder about how his own family was holding up after losing two children mysteriously. He'd heard numerous times from Duo that there were still missing posters of him and his deceased sister Elena, but Quatre knew better than to go into town. Duo had the fortune of no one ever really questioning his disappearance, while it was a cruel thing to think it was still the truth.

Whether or not the half-vampire was able to accept that as a blessing Quatre wasn't sure. But in Quatre's case he had a family who now were missing him amongst the rest of them, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to comfort them. Heero had already warned him that it wouldn't be a good idea to appear before his father with the news he was now a creature of the night and his sister was dead.

For some reason this also made Quatre's thoughts drift back towards Trowa. The mysterious vampire hunter had ended up leaving so abruptly that it hadn't been exactly fair to Quatre. Something about the man had triggered an unexplainable emotion inside of the blonde. Even now just thinking of the brunette made Quatre long for him unbearably and almost made the blonde wish he could turn off that feeling.

"I will find you Trowa... no matter where you run, no matter where you hide... I will find you. Even if you can never accept or return my feelings, I will confess to you. At least I will be able to die of heartbreak rather than the regret of never seeking you." Quatre murmured as he reached his own room and opened the door.

Giving the room a quick glance made Quatre wonder exactly what he was going to bring on his journey. There wasn't anything of any real sentimental value to him anymore as he decided to bury all of his sister's belongings after her death. He sat on the bed and pondered the most important question of that moment.

Where would he start his search?

----

Duo stopped outside the door as he thought over exactly what he had planned on doing, and felt an unexpected hesitation. He wasn't sure what was making him doubtful all of a sudden, but he brushed the feeling aside and entered the room. Almost immediately he regretted doing so as he found Heero dead asleep on the bed.

Not even a single candle was flickering around the vampire's room as the darkness swallowed Duo whole. Yet the half-vampire had been given extraordinarily sensitive eyes that allowed him to see in the dark better than any human could. He found a route to the oversized bed and then climbed on top being careful not to wake the sleeping vampire beside him.

He ran a hand through Heero's hair, and suddenly Duo saw deep Prussian blue eyes on him.

"Hey Heero, I thought I'd start fulfilling that promise now while we have a chance to be alone." Duo smiled thinking he'd been considerate of Heero's feelings, but as he leaned down to kiss his lover he just got a hand in his face.

"Don't you have another responsibility that needs your immediate attention? A certain _child_ who is most likely searching for you as we speak because he's still afraid of being abandoned. Why are you here when you're supposed to be caring for that orphan?" Heero's accusing eyes made Duo want to shrink back, but he didn't.

Instead he defended his actions hastily, "I was just thinking of _you_! Is that so selfish to think of your lover?!"

Heero let out a loud sigh as he sat up in his bed, "Don't you realize a human being is a responsibility you can't throw on other people? He's officially your adopted _son_, and treating him this way will only make him bitter towards adults and you. Haven't you ever heard that a parent must always put the child's needs before their own?"

The half-vampire was silent as he contemplated the statement. Of course he understood what Heero was trying to tell him, but it was so hard to restrain himself. And it finally hit him that he'd rushed into adopting Thomas way before he was ever ready.

Yet if he hadn't, then Duo knew nobody would have. Still the half-vampire realized the reality of the situation, and that was that Heero was absolutely right. He hadn't even thought about Thomas' feelings or needs really. He crawled out of bed after lightly kissing Heero, and headed towards the door.

Before he opened the door, Duo turned around with a deceptive grin. "Don't think you being all philosophical and deep will get you out of dinner plans tonight. I am going to have you and Thomas start to bond so that you two can at least tolerate each other."

Duo opened the door to find Sally outside the door looking completely agitated, and then he saw what was the cause of it. She pulled Thomas into clear view of Heero and Duo, and then let go of the child's now pink arm.

"I believe this belongs to you."

----

**Another satisfying chapter hopefully? I want to thank all of my readers and those of you who have left reviews. I'm sure most of ya'll are writers so you can empathize with me as I feel so wonderful reading those reviews. Even the ones with constructive criticism are nice to read once in a while. **

**So I want to thank everyone who's taken the time to click that little button at the end of each chapter to leave a review. And I promise to keep updating as often as possible and hopefully with even better chapters each time!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	4. Chapter 4

Duo stared at Sally and then to Thomas, and then let out a sigh as he took Thomas' hand. He knew Heero wasn't in the mood for the orphan, so Duo stepped out of the room and closed the door. Sally let go of the boy's arm and then left without even waiting to hear what Duo had to say for himself.

"Ms. Sally isn't really nice, is she?" The boy pouted and tried to look the part of the victim, but Duo wasn't so easily fooled.

"Thomas, I thought I told you to stay with Ms. Hilde. I told you not to go around the castle by yourself, and you deliberately disobeyed me." The half-vampire had never disciplined anyone, and he'd never been disciplined either. Actually, the closest thing to a punishment Duo had ever experienced was being caught while stealing. "Ms. Sally only did what she had to do in order to keep you under control, and you know that. You have to stay in your room for the rest of the afternoon until dinner."

Maybe that wasn't a real punishment, but what else could he do? There was nothing to take away from him to show he'd been wrong, and it wasn't like he could actually make the boy do any chores since they were always done by the servants. Even though the half-vampire had expected the orphan to just shrug it off as nothing, Thomas obviously considered it serious.

His lip quivered as a few tears started streaming down his cheeks, but Duo knew not to let his sympathy get the best of his authority.

"I'm sorry! I just wanted to see _you_ Daddy, but Ms. Hilde wouldn't take me so I went by myself." Thomas looked genuinely remorseful of his actions, but Duo still couldn't allow him off the hook. "I promise I won't do it again! I really won't!"

"You have to remember Thomas; I only have your safety in mind when I told you not to go off by yourself. This is one of the most important rules for living here, and you broke it intentionally so I can't allow you to go unpunished." Duo began leading the boy towards his room, "It's only for a day so I'm sure you can bear that much."

As they were walking down the corridor Duo felt he boy's hand go somewhat limp, and it made him wander if he was acting too harsh. Then again, the boy was a great actor when it came to gaining pity, so maybe this was all just an act? Duo just made sure not to look back at the child, because he knew he'd go soft as soon as he did so.

Upon reaching the room, Duo opened the door for Thomas and then followed him inside. He decided the best way to make sure Thomas did as he was told was to just keep a close eye on the child himself. That and already he was taking Heero's words to heart, and trying to be a parent for Thomas.

Thomas almost immediately went for the bed and didn't even look back at his father. Duo decided to read a book Quatre had recommended for him a few weeks ago, and sat down at the desk in the corner of the room. Silence gave the room an uncomfortable feeling as they didn't say even one word to each other for the next couple of hours. In reality the only sounds that was made was the turning of pages in the book Duo was reading and the occasional sniffle from Thomas.

----

Already she knew she wasn't going to like having that orphan around all day, but that's when Sally got a brilliant idea. Perhaps the boy didn't have to be around _all_ day. He would just have to act like a normal child would and go to the small school in town for a few hours of each day. Sally wasn't sure how Duo was going to react to her idea, but first she decided it would be best to try it out on Heero.

Surely if Heero was to agree to it, then Duo would eventually have to. The half-vampire hardly ever disagreed with Heero when it came to decisions such as this, and there wasn't any loophole that Duo would be capable of using to prevent Thomas from going to school. Yet now wasn't the time to talk with the vampire master as he was just getting back to sleep from Duo's disturbance.

Instead Sally went back to the library to find Quatre, and see if he thought Heero would like the plan. Politely, she knocked on the door before opening it to see an empty library.

"Quatre?" Without thinking she called out to him, even knowing that if he wasn't sitting at that specific table by the door then he wasn't in there. "Did a stack of books fall over and crush you?"

She stepped into the room and was careful to avoid some books on the floor as she made her way towards the table. As she was approaching there was a book that immediately caught her eye, and without thinking she tripped on another pile of books.

Her hastiness caused her to hit her arm hard on the table's edge and ended up leaving a huge bruise on her forearm. Scolding herself silently for being so impulsive, the vampire used the table to pick herself up off the floor. After dusting herself off, Sally then turned back towards the book that had grabbed her attention.

It looked like an ordinary book, but the title gave away its uniqueness. "_Reversing the Curse_... What curse would Quatre be trying to fix?"

After pondering it for another minute, the blonde vampire just grabbed the book under her arm and cautiously made her way out of the library. Later she would have more time to look at the book and read some of it as well. Right now she was still going to find Quatre to ask his opinion.

----

Finally Thomas thought he had waited out his entire punishment when Duo got up out of his chair. Instead the half-vampire went towards the bathroom and stopped briefly before going inside. Thomas took that as a hint that he shouldn't think of trying to leave.

He didn't dare to anger his father anymore than he already had, and even though most normal children wouldn't consider this a real punishment... Thomas certainly did. One of the worst things he felt he could do to a person is disappoint them, and he'd done exactly that to a person he really liked.

Duo had trusted him to obey the rules even though the half-vampire knew it would be hard for the orphan. And yet Thomas hadn't really thought about his father's feelings at all, and just went ahead with what he felt like doing. Now he was regretting it tenfold as he had to sit in the same room with Duo, and yet was unable to say a single apology.

Without actually realizing it, Thomas had gotten out of the bed and wandered over to the bathroom door. He heard Duo drawing a bath and saw his father sitting on the edge just casually dragging his hand limply across the surface of the water. Duo stopped once the boy stepped all the way into the bathroom, and immediately the half-vampire smiled.

"I think you've had enough of a punishment for today, so go ahead and clean up. Then we'll head downstairs to have dinner with Heero." Thomas noticed Duo's expression became even softer once he mentioned the name Heero. "Relax in here and I'm going to be right back. Please don't leave the room, okay?"

The boy waited until he heard Duo leave the room before he started to undress and slip into the bath. Somehow the water was just the right temperature, leaving nothing to complain about whatsoever. Yet now he was curious of where his father had gone.

"Don't be stupid... Daddy asked you to stay here and that's just what you're going to do!" Thomas told himself as he tried to enjoy he bath as much as possible. "I'm just glad Daddy doesn't seem angry anymore. As long as he's happy, Daddy Duo will keep me around and I won't be left alone again."

Duo suddenly appeared in the bathroom with a hurt look and then went over to the bathtub. "Thomas, don't think I'll abandon you just because I get a little frustrated. I promised you that I wouldn't leave you and that's why I wouldn't have any right to throw you out just for breaking one rule."

"But I thought you said it's a really important rule that I broke... Every time I did that in town I always got yelled at by people."

"I'm not saying you can go around constantly getting into mischief, but I know that nobody's perfect. Every person on this planet has screwed up at least once, so it's not my place to decide that you should lose your home because of something so minor." Duo ruffled Thomas' wet hair before turning towards the door. "Just promise me to always do what you believe is right. Don't be fooled by everyone else telling you it's wrong, and don't give Ms. Sally any more migraines."

----

Sitting at the table across from the glaring orphan didn't make Heero feel any better about his decision to keep the boy. Duo had constantly tried to make polite conversation in hopes of starting a real conversation between them. Instead Thomas had just continued to glower at the vampire, and made Heero even more annoyed.

Heero stirred the blood in his glass and noticed Thomas suddenly get a look of suspicion mixed in with scrutiny, and finally the vampire could take it no more. He pushed away from the table and excused himself as he began to walk to the front door.

Already he was late for his nightly rounds as Duo had made him stay a little later for that stupid dinner that had obviously failed. Just as he was about to leave Duo came out of the dining room and grabbed tightly onto Heero's arm.

"Please don't give up on him yet Heero... you have to understand he's not going to open up so quickly to everyone." Duo had a disappointed look which made the vampire hesitate for a moment.

He pulled Duo close to him and gave him a quick kiss, but then quickly broke away from the half-vampire. "It's obvious to me that he likes you, and don't think that I'll kick him out just because I don't like him. I told you he could stay, and I meant it. That doesn't mean I have to like him, do I?"

"Heero! He's just a child who needs _parents_, not a _parent_."

"Believe me, he has a mother and a father in you. Besides, you can love a family member, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to _like_ them." Heero turned away from his lover and went out the door into the glorious night.

The crisp air was enough to revive him from the long day of disturbed street and heavy burdens. Just being out of the castle allowed him to feel alive again, as ironic as that is. He stepped down the front steps and walked down the stone pathway towards the large gates surrounding the garden and castle.

"The town looks more lively tonight than it has in a long time..." Heero could see people outside on the streets, and then he heard the music. The music of those traveling freak shows where people just laughed at others for having the misfortune of being born deformed. "Perhaps I should go take a look myself..."

In only a split second he was before the edge of the town, and now was able to hear the music and laughter of townspeople clearly. Just as he'd predicted there was a 'carnival' as the owners would call them, and the closest cage to him contained some woman who they claimed was half-lizard.

Obviously she wasn't anything but a normal woman with very expertly painted scales, but whoever had made her up had done a decent job. She was even a great actress as she acted offended and afraid of the peoples' attention. Heero didn't linger long at her cage as he decided to take a glimpse at the so-called vampire the next tent down.

As he entered a deep man's voice was just announcing the start of the show, and Heero decided to watch since he was curious to see what his kind looked like to humans. Much to his surprise there was a normal looking young woman in the spotlight, and she seemed genuinely frightened.

Then the vampire understood why as a taller man emerged silently from the shadows. "She's the bait..."

Her large sapphire eyes were trying to seek out the predator as he casually stalked her around the lit area. Though he couldn't explain why, Heero knew that man was a true vampire and would truly kill that innocent woman for no reason other than some extra cash.

None of the other people dared to breathe much less move to help her as he lunged. He could never figure out why he'd pushed through the stunned pedestrians and grabbed her away from the vampire's clutches at the last second.

Immediately the crowd stirred wondering if it was part of the show, but when they heard the manager of the entire freak show yell at Heero to stop they all understood. Even knowing Heero was ruining the act, most of the crowd parted to allow him to get away with the girl. The two of them emerged out of the tent and immediately Heero picked her up and flitted to the outskirts of town.

As he came to a stop, he put the young woman down knowing he shouldn't have done that. Vampires weren't kind to people who stole their prey, especially from right under their noses.

"Thank you so much! I can't thank you enough! They kidnapped me from my hometown and told me I was now going to be part of the vampire act... How could I ever repay you?" The young woman threw herself upon Heero, and startled the vampire.

Heero immediately shoved her away and dusted himself off. "You don't need to thank me. Just go home to your parents like all the other spoiled brats do after they're saved. Besides if you don't like vampires, then you _definitely_ won't like me."

For a few moments the young woman was silent and then turned away from Heero.

"You're one of those types, huh? The ones who pretend they hate the world when inside you love it just like the rest of us. I won't bother you though since you went through the trouble of doing what no one else in that audience would have bothered to do." She turned and smiled at Heero making the vampire glare at her. "My name is Relena Peacecraft, by the way. If you even need my help for _anything_ I'm in the next town over."

The first thought that came to Heero's mind was that the name Peacecraft was incredibly familiar, but he couldn't remember from where. Instead sticking around when the vampire he'd stolen Relena from came looking for him; Heero decided to go back to the castle.

----

All of the things he wanted to bring with him on his search were now packed in a small bag he could easily carry around. Now the only thing he had to do was bring up the subject with Heero, but that could wait until tomorrow evening. Instead he decided to rest for a few extra hours when he got a knock on his door.

Quatre was planning on just ignoring the visitor at first, but when they began to continue persistently knocking he called them in. To his surprise it was actually Sally who entered the room and apparently skipping out on dinner.

"What's wrong? You look like you have something on your mind."

"Actually I think I've found the perfect arrangement for dealing with that orphan child. A way that he doesn't _always_ have to be around and need to constantly be under our surveillance to ensure his safety." Sally looked genuinely proud of her idea as she finally told the curious blonde young man. "We should send him to school in town."

Sitting on the bed, Quatre began to contemplate the idea. What Sally was saying was a good thing not only for the vampires in the castle, but good for the orphan as well. Without any education the boy would never survive in the world of humans, and since they were able to afford this luxury...

"I'm not the one you should be telling this to. You should go talk with Heero and Duo since they're the ones who will decide how that boy lives around this deathtrap." He answered her already seeing the look of irritation that he disagreed with such an excellent idea. "Not to say that it isn't a good idea, but what if he tells people of us? If word got out that the rumors of vampires truly living here instead of just 'those weird people' then we would be in trouble."

Sally gave him a knowing smile and then answered him, "But we just need to stress the importance to Thomas that he must not tell _anyone_ about what we are."

"That won't work Sally, children can't control their mouths and are always looking for some way of getting attention. There will be one time that he's talking and it just slips out and that's the end of it." Quatre got to his feet as he saw Sally heading for the door angry her idea had been completely shot down.

He caught her by the arm and held onto her with a firm grip not allowing her to leave. Sally closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning back towards Quatre. "Listen... Master Heero doesn't really need this extra burden on top of everything else he's dealing with. I know you can sense it as well... Duo can't be constantly distracted by that child when he has to make such a big decision to finally become a full-fledged vampire."

Quatre let go of Sally's arm and then went and sat back down on the bed. After a few seconds he lied down and didn't look at Sally as she left the room. This was just more proof that he shouldn't be so selfish and leave.

But then again, this was something he really needed to do. Living without Trowa just wasn't an option anymore for Quatre... Then he also knew that Heero and Duo were struggling with another naive person in the castle and with their relationship.

Just as Sally said, Quatre had been sensing Heero's conscious mind slowly detaching itself lately. Perhaps Duo just didn't have that kind of perception to realize that, but it was happening because Duo was too scared to take the plunge. The half-vampire had yet to realize love wasn't a safe thing, and there's going to be a moment that you're hanging in midair without any net to catch you.

But it shouldn't stop you from taking that leap. Not if you really wanted that person, and that rationalization Quatre knew he had to do the same. Even though times were hard for Heero and Duo, the blonde vampire had faith in their love for each other.

He was now ready to take that leap with Trowa as well.

----

**Another chapter out! I hope this was another good chapter for reading. Just as a warning though, when November comes closer I'm probably going to go on a temporary hiatus for this story in order to participate in NanoWriMo. It won't be permanent, but there might not be any new chapters out for the month of November in order to focus on writing 50,000 words.**

**But for October I will continue to write as much as possible! Chapter five is already in the process of being written, so expect another chapter soon!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	5. Chapter 5

Thomas was silent as he remained alone at the dinner table after Heero had left the room and Duo had chased after him. Why did his new father always want to please that guy Heero? Why was he so special? There was nothing about the man that Thomas even remotely liked, and he knew nothing would change his mind.

Yet the orphan also realized that with that kind of mentality he would never even be able to learn to accept Heero. If he didn't then life would be a living hell with Duo always attempting to be on his good side. Yet his new father wasn't the only person in the castle that Thomas noticed was always kind to Heero even when the man wasn't so kind in return.

All of the servants and maids always bowed to him or at least averted their eyes to the ground in his presence. The chef Hilde, Sally, and Duo all loved Heero for some unknown and odd reason that was invisible to Thomas. Perhaps the man just didn't like to be around kids?

No... It seemed like something much more than that, and Thomas didn't even feel like those unreadable negative thoughts were directed at _him_ per se... Actually Heero seemed to associate whatever loathing he had for children to be more at himself instead of Thomas. This just ended up confusing the boy even more than before once that realization hit him.

After a few minutes of sitting alone with all of the uneaten food making Thomas' stomach go into knots Duo finally returned. He almost noticed immediately as his father sat down that he seemed more upset than before.

"Daddy, are you okay?" Thomas asked without really meaning to.

Duo looked over at him and gave him a grin, "I'm fine. I just don't think we're going to town tonight. Maybe tomorrow night, but right now I'm just exhausted. Why don't we head off to bed? If we wake up early tomorrow, I'll take you out to the garden again."

Thomas really wanted to go out in the garden again because of the tranquility it brought him. As soon as he'd left the castle earlier that day and just had the chance to wander through the wonderful maze of nature he'd found some peace. For most children they probably wouldn't have found such a thing as peace in some garden, and most likely would've found boredom and ended up destroying some of the life.

"Sure! I can't wait to go out there again with you, Daddy!" He feigned complete enthusiasm that he currently lacked.

The whole reason Thomas always tried to act so childish was because he knew adults weren't capable of comprehending that children could be deep. Their whole life wasn't about rainbows and fantasies that would never come true, but Thomas had never met anyone who'd ever understood that.

Maybe that's why he found peace in that garden, because there he felt no one would judge him. The only living things there was him, Duo, and the plant life around him that just silently accepted everything that was happening around them. The flowers didn't question his true self, and the trees didn't deny him the ability to think beyond a normal child.

Duo took hold of Thomas' hand very gently as if he was afraid he'd shatter the orphan's hand in an instant. That was why the boy tightened his grip on his father to prove he wasn't as fragile as everyone seemed to believe him to be. Still the pale hand grasping his was just as limp as before, and Thomas knew that it wasn't about him. Duo was just in one of those trances where he wasn't really there, and even though he had been the one to offer his hand to the orphan Duo no longer could feel the boy.

As they navigated through the corridors together, Thomas felt like their roles should be reversed for some reason. Usually parents would never show such a vulnerable state to their child, but that's when the reality really hit him.

Duo wasn't his _father_; the man's blood wasn't inside of Thomas' veins to where they were forever bonded. Instead it was the blood of two hateful parents that had abandoned him on the street corner on his fifth birthday.

Thomas felt his body go numb remembering the hopeful feeling he had when he watched them walk away from him. Both of them told him to wait here for his birthday present, and at the time it hadn't occurred to him that responsible parents didn't leave young children alone on the street.

He felt his hand fall to his side, but Duo continued walking without even stopping for a split second to realize the orphan's absence. Thomas could feel tears about to flow, but he forced himself to stop and then caught back up with Duo.

He didn't try to take ahold of Duo's hand again.

----

Duo didn't remember falling asleep, didn't remember going to his room, didn't remember Thomas being with him, and couldn't understand how it was already morning. The last thing he _did_ remember was that Heero had shot down all hopes Duo had of ever enjoying a semi-normal family relationship between the three of them.

He'd hoped that Heero and he could be the parents of Thomas since it was obvious neither of them were getting pregnant anytime soon. But there was a simple fact that had shattered this dream.

And that was that real life didn't happen in such a way. Perhaps in one of those fictional novels Quatre constantly read all day the sort of thing would happen where Heero would be angry at first, but in the end all three of them would live happily ever after.

What was happily ever after?

The books always ended saying they lived happily ever after, but what did that consist of? Nice dinners where everyone would talk of their day and laugh at all their little mistakes? Or was it more like reality?

Did everyone put on the façade of loving each other, but secretly loathe one another? That would be reality's happily ever after, and no matter how much you could sugarcoat the truth, there was no avoiding the fact. In the end Duo knew that his life would come to an end, but he'd never thought of how the part between this moment and that second before he would pass away.

What would the rest of his life be like? How _long _would the rest of his life be?

As he got out of bed, Duo put all of those thoughts behind him and tried to focus. The half-vampire had promised Thomas to take him out to the garden last night, and Duo intended to fulfill that promise yet when he looked over at the orphan he was still fast asleep.

Instead of disturbing Thomas, the half-vampire left the room in search of some company or someone who would at least listen to his feelings. The first person that came to mind was a certain blonde vampire who usually lived in the library and surrounded himself with books.

"Quatre will help me figure everything out... after all he always has his life together even when the world is crumbling around him." Duo walked into the library and looked at the table where the blonde vampire would usually sit. Much to his surprise he found the seat to be vacant and the room completely undisturbed. "Maybe he's in his room. I know he hasn't slept for a couple of days so most likely he's just playing catch-up today."

Duo wasn't actually intending on waking up the vampire if he did find the blonde asleep, but he just wanted to find Quatre. As he quickened his pace he found himself at the door of Quatre's room, and carefully he cracked the door just enough so he could stick his head inside.

Quatre wasn't here either, but if he wasn't in either of his favorites spots... Then where was he?

----

Heero had wasted his night just sitting out in the garden and wondering what had driven him to save the young woman. In his opinion it was better to just not meddle when it came to other vampires and their business. Yet he had, and he couldn't even explain why.

Perhaps it was that terrified look that he'd always ignored before meeting Duo, but after living with Duo for a while he'd come to regret what he'd done to some of his victims. The vampire couldn't even remember how it had come up in conversation, but there was one time that Duo had mentioned it.

----

_"Do you make all of your victims into servants? Or do you just kill them?" Duo asked while watching Heero try to sleep. "Every time I've heard vampire stories all the people just end up dying and all that dramatic crap."_

_Heero tried not to be irritated with Duo, because he'd actually grown accustomed to this game of questions every night. "Duo... I'm trying to sleep. Why don't you do the same?"_

_Amethyst eyes met Prussian blue eyes and there was a moment of tense silence._

"_You shouldn't avoid the question Heero, it just makes it seem like you have something to hide."_

_The vampire turned his head to look at Duo and frowned. "I don't kill all of them and not all of them are servants either. Is that a good enough answer for you?"_

_Heero knew it wasn't, but the half-vampire didn't reply. Instead he situated himself to where he was facing Heero, but didn't even look at him again that whole night. Yet it was obvious that Duo wanted to say ask the question, but knew there would never be an answer._

_----_

He wasn't able to think about what happened the rest of that night because he was interrupted by Quatre. The blonde casually sat beside Heero as if there was no reason for him to actually be there besides wanting to. Of course it was obvious that Quatre was here for a reason, but he was good at making it seem like he wasn't.

Neither of them spoke for a few more minutes as both just watched the moon be constantly covered by clouds and then manage to escape being smothered for just a moment. After what seemed like an eternity, Quatre finally voiced his concern to Heero.

"I need to leave this place Heero. I need to find my own place in the world, and my own partner to keep the darkness from consuming me." The blonde spoke as if he was asking for nothing more than to walk to town, but Heero knew most likely the blonde wouldn't ever come back.

Knowing that Duo wasn't going to be nearly as understanding as he was, Heero hesitated in allowing Quatre to leave. "You realize that most likely you'll never see us again?"

This seemed to catch the blonde vampire off-guard, but Quatre quickly redeemed his composure. "Duo can't understand what I'm going through right now like you can. You went through all of this not so long ago and know how difficult like is to be alone knowing that someone is out there just for you."

Heero couldn't argue against that statement as it was a fact that he had gone through everything Quatre was, but for much longer. There were several years where the vampire had even believed he was doomed to be alone forever, but that fortune-teller had given him the hope he'd needed to survive those extra few years on his own.

"You are now free to find your own partner, home, and whatever you need to attain in this world Quatre." Heero stood up as he removed whatever ties he had to this castle so that the blonde vampire would not feel the need to return here without having accomplished his mission. "I will give you the option to say goodbye to everyone or not. It is your choice."

Quatre smiled like his old self, the person Heero hadn't seen for months now, and it calmed the vampire. Perhaps no one could really explain why Quatre had morphed into an almost completely different person ever since becoming a full vampire, but Heero had always suspected his own darkness was growing fast.

Without looking back at Quatre the vampire entered the castle and headed towards the kitchen. He knew that the blonde most likely hadn't thought to pack any blood for him to feed on when there was no food source nearby. Once he'd told Hilde what he needed, the chef already knew what was going on. She knew someone was leaving, but didn't know who for sure.

Still she went ahead and gave Heero the blood he needed for the person leaving, and Heero at once returned to the garden. Quatre was still there, as if he knew that Heero had wanted him to wait, but once the blonde received the blood he went immediately inside.

"You'll have to forgive me Duo... I know you probably won't be able to understand what he's going through right now, but I'll explain everything to you soon enough."

----

Quatre left immediately after Heero gave him the extra blood, but didn't have the heart to say goodbye to everyone knowing he might never see them again. Especially Duo, since the blonde owed the half-vampire his life for taking care of him. In the end, Quatre wasn't sure whether it would've been better to say goodbye to everyone or just leave.

So he chose to just leave. Not that the blonde didn't feel bad about leaving without giving any notice, but he wasn't sure if he was capable of handling saying goodbye to the people he'd come to love as a family.

Which had made him remember his true family, not as a vampire, but as the human Quatre Winner. This had brought the blonde to the mansion he used to call home, but since it was he middle of the night no one was awake. Not that Quatre had honestly expected anyone to be, but he just hoped to at least get a glimpse of his father.

The thing that caught Quatre by surprise was he found one room with someone still awake. As he carefully snuck around the edge of the house, Quatre was able to catch a quick glimpse of who was inside. It was his oldest sister still awake and apparently she had been crying, yet there was no way Quatre could ever know why.

If he dared to reveal himself as a creature of the night, then he would only give his family even more pain. Yet it was hard to restrain himself from just going down there and at least looking at his sister one last time. She was always so empathetic to him during his childhood, and Quatre remembered that despite their large age difference she was always there for him.

At least he would find comfort that the family is moving on with their lives instead of dwelling on his disappearance and his other sister Elena's death. Both were horrible tragedies for any family to experience, but you couldn't always dwell on the past. Just as he turned to leave Quatre noticed from the corner of his eye that his sister had looked up towards where he had just been.

Before she was at the window, Quatre was already gone and had flitted back to the main road out of town. Even though he hadn't been able to see his father, at least the blonde could be satisfied with a glimpse of his favorite sister. As he continued walking away from his hometown, Quatre began to wonder whether this was really the right choice to make.

Then again, if he didn't go for his chance with Trowa then there would never be another time. Humans aged much faster than Quatre had ever realized before becoming a vampire, and made it obvious that there was no better time than the present to find the person for him. The vampire had sworn not to make the same mistake as Heero had, though it was debatable whether it really was a mistake.

In the end he'd managed to find Duo... so could it be considered a bad thing he'd waited so long?

Actually Quatre couldn't imagine Duo and Heero separated with the kind of bond they share. The blonde vampire was sure now that Heero most likely wouldn't have found salvation without Duo Maxwell by his side. This was the fate that Quatre could say he hoped would happen with him and Trowa.

He hoped that the vampire hunter and him would have as great as a relationship as Duo and Heero shared. Even when they were constantly arguing like they were recently, it was still obvious that both were willing to sacrifice for one another.

Even if it wasn't something extremely great, they would always accept whatever one gave. That's what Quatre wanted in his life, and he was just thankful that he would not have to suffer as long as Heero had.

----

Sally had decided to do her rounds for the night as everything seemed to eerily silent in the castle. As she walked around she found all of the servants going about the chores quietly, Duo had turned in early with Thomas leaving the castle even more uneventful, and with Heero out there was hardly any commotion.

It was nights like these that she was able to truly find a sense of solitude among all the chaos of her daily life. Even Hilde the chef had gone to her room to enjoy a few rare hours of free time in which she decided to spend doing things Sally didn't know about. Which, oddly enough, Sally found herself wandering towards Hilde's private quarters without really meaning to.

Her body just took her in that general direction, and in all honesty Sally didn't feel like resisting. There was something about the chef that Sally had taken an honest liking to, and she was one of the servants in the castle that Sally really liked. And wasn't afraid to admit it to anyone either.

As she found herself in the long corridor leading towards the servants' living area, Sally stopped and tried to force herself to go the opposite way. Reminding herself that Heero had been kind enough to giver her a room all to herself, Sally was struggling with making herself go back to it.

Instead of checking out the servants living arrangements, Sally knew she deserved a good night's rest (along with a full day's). But something wasn't allowing her to turn back and go away from Hilde's room.

While internally fighting her urge to see Hilde, Sally was startled as somebody's hand landed on her shoulder. She whipped around to see who it was, and found the somewhat petite chef directly beside her.

"Are you alright Ms. Sally? Would you like to sit down and have something to drink? You look absolutely exhausted." Hilde smiled and lead Sally towards the kitchen which the blonde hadn't even noticed was right beside her. "Sit down over here, and I'll be right back."

"Don't worry about me Hilde, I'll be fine. I just need to go get a few extra hours of sleep, Duo and his new arrival just kept me up all day." Sally tried not to look like she was in a hurry out of the kitchen, but as soon as she was out she took her chance to get as far away as possible.

----

**Hello once again readers! I hope you've had a glorious weekend! My weekend hasn't been all that great, but hopefully all of you guys have had a better time.**

**Once again, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	6. Chapter 6

Trowa knew the guy was a nutcase as soon as he'd walked in. The man was dressed in a dark blue dress ripped halfway to where it was now just a shirt, wearing pants way too long for him, and was wearing Asian style sandals. Wufei and Trowa exchanged a look of puzzlement as the man sat down casually as if he was right at home.

"I was just attacked by a vampire, and I want you to track him down." He looked at his fingernails and picked at the invisible speck of dirt beneath them. Then he looked up expectantly at the two vampire hunters, and found the two of them giving him a scrutinizing look.

Wufei was the first to ask a question, "You mean you were attacked just _now_?"

"Yes, and I want you to track him down because he was awfully cute."

Trowa sighed and then looked out the window before looking back at their 'client'. "You do know that vampires can't come out in broad daylight, right? So how are you a victim?"

Immediately the man stood up as if offended, and stormed out of the room. It took all of Trowa's effort not to laugh at the man. Honestly, sometimes it really amazed him the kinds of people who walked in here claiming to have been attacked, seen, or was being stalked by a vampire. That was why he'd been reluctant about having a public office where anybody could come in to place their request.

Before it had just been people playing it by ear and if the clients were lucky enough to track them down then they could hire the vampire hunters. Instead of sitting around in an office all day, Wufei and Trowa used to go out and track down their own vampires as well.

Instead, now the two of them were confined to the constant drone of everyday life, and it reminded Trowa of why he'd become a hunter. He'd known even as a child he wasn't destined to just marry a woman and live a boring, ordinary life. That and the fact that vampires had constantly haunted his hometown.

Walking out on the streets after sunset was so dangerous that nobody even dared to try it unless they had a death wish. Thankfully the vampires had some courtesy somewhere deep down and never tried to invade anyone's home for prey. It was one of the things Trowa had never seen any vampire ever do.

One was to break into the homes of others, they had no problems with stores, but they never disturbed people in their homes. Two was that they never chose a pregnant woman as their prey, which puzzled Trowa completely. Considering a woman who's pregnant would be much easier to chase down and attack, but he'd never seen a vampire do it before unless they were truly desperate.

That was where the Beasts came in though. The Beasts never followed any rules or codes for their attacks, and they were often the ones who always killed whoever they drained. Sometimes vampires showed mercy and left the people alive after having their fill, but the Beasts never did.

They were vampires who seemed to lose all human aspects entirely, and nothing was left but the pure desire to feed. Whenever a family was murdered in their sleep, it was always the Beasts who did this, but people commonly mistook them for vampires. Not saying that all vampires behaved, because Wufei and Trowa had seen and killed quite a few who didn't.

Yet the hunters did not usually disturb the vampires that stayed out of humans' way, unless they were hired to do so. That was why many people also disliked them as much as they liked vampire hunters, because even the hunters had their morals.

Going around needlessly killing off random vampires just trying to live in peace wasn't the kind of thing hunters tended to do. Which was a misunderstanding of people even today; nobody understood that they only killed the rogue vampires who trailed off the path of isolated life.

"Wufei, I'm going to go outside for a while. I need some fresh air before I have to deal with another nutcase walking in here." Trowa pushed his chair back and then headed for the door to the outside world.

The Chinese man didn't say anything to the brunette, but Trowa knew Wufei wasn't a people person and wasn't always able to restrain himself against people like that man. He had a distinct dislike of people who only wanted attention, and came up with illogical excuses just to get some people to look their way. Everybody disliked people like that, but Wufei couldn't stand to even be in the presence of a person like that.

But that's why Trowa didn't worry about Wufei. If someone else came in here with a bogus story, then the Chinese hunter would just frighten them away with some of the rants he went on about.

"I'm going to close up for today," Wufei also got out of his seat and followed Trowa to the door. "We haven't gotten a decent client in weeks, so I doubt today will be any different."

Sadly, it was true that they hadn't gotten any real clients willing to pay a decent amount of money in a few weeks now. That's why the two hunters might have to resort to taking on day jobs just to continue having some income in order to buy some food.

Trowa bit his lip to keep from mentioning he was going to try and find yet _another_ job since he'd just been fired from the last one. The brunette had decided it wasn't an important matter to bring up with his partner that he'd been let go because of constantly being distracted.

He couldn't help that his thoughts often drifted back to the blonde vampire he had seen when being hired by the Winner family. Something about that vampire had captivated him upon first sight. Even now Trowa would just be sitting there and images of the blonde would appear before him, and that sweet smile would give him a sense of longing.

Something about that vampire... even now he couldn't keep his thoughts away from the blonde.

"I'll be back before dinner, but don't wait up to eat if I'm late."

"I wouldn't have waited even if you hadn't told me you might be late." Wufei tried to be convincing when he said this.

But Trowa knew that wasn't reality at all. Wufei always waited to eat with Trowa no matter how late the brunette stayed out, and it had been that way ever since they'd first formed their partnership. It made his stomach go into knots as he knew this was torture to Wufei.

Being out of his home country, and not to mention the person Wufei liked was never able to return those feelings. The guilt had consumed Trowa for the first few months after he'd discovered the other hunter's feelings for him, but the brunette had made it very clear the first time that they'd discussed relationships.

"I'll see you later," Trowa shut the door firmly as he left.

He just didn't feel that kind of attraction to Wufei.

----

_Smiling. They were smiling as if it was an everyday thing as they walked down the dark streets of the town, and while leading the young child by the hand. The boy could've sworn he saw a tear roll down his mother's cheek, but there was no way of telling since she refused to look directly at him. _

_His father had a smile on his face, but it was obvious it wasn't a _real_ smile. _

_Both parents stopped abruptly and the father let go of the boy's hand. Never before had the child gone on a walk with his parents so late at night, but it was his birthday and it was a special day. _

_'Stay here Thomas. If you don't move from this spot we promise to bring you a really great present.' His father knelt down to where he was eye level with the boy, yet he was looking straight through his son. 'Do you promise?'_

_His mother didn't say a word, but she continued smiling and staring off into the distance._

_'I promise! I'll wait right here for when you get back!" He gave them a smile as well, not realizing their intentions. After all, a five year old didn't have great intuition. _

_But even though he waited there just like he'd promised; neither of them ever came back._

_---- _

Thomas opened his eyes slowly, and already felt the tears. He hated whenever he dreamt of that day, but it had been almost a year since he had relived that memory. Last night had probably caused him to feel the same as that day since Duo was acting so strange.

Carefully the boy got out of the large bed and went toward the door before realizing Duo wasn't there. As he recalled he wasn't supposed to go anywhere alone, so what could he do now? The only thing in the room he could do was 'explore' what was in the desk and wardrobe.

He decided the wardrobe wouldn't be interesting, so Thomas immediately went for the desk. Surely there would be something of interest there, and would allow Thomas to entertain himself. As he sat in the plain wooden chair he found the desk to be just like the chair. Plain and boring.

Though he found a single drawer that must have _something_ inside, and Thomas tried to open it. He struggled with it for a moment hoping that it was just jammed and not really locked, but even he knew that it wasn't going to open without a key of some sort.

So what secret could be locked up in the desk? Was it something Duo wanted to hide? Or perhaps it was that other guy Heero.

Either way Thomas wanted to know what someone would want so desperately to keep away from others. Yet he didn't get the chance to try harder to get into the drawer as Duo came into the room and startled the snooping orphan.

"Good morning Thomas," Duo smiled apparently out of that trancelike state he was in last night.

The boy tried not to look too suspicious even though he was just caught in the act, but the half-vampire didn't seem to really notice. "Good morning Daddy!"

His fake enthusiasm was undetected as Duo went over to the wardrobe and looked through all of the clothes for something to wear.

----

Quatre had chosen an inn to sleep in during the day, and even with his nocturnal schedule nobody seemed curious about him. That's why the blonde decided to stay in the town for a few nights knowing that he wasn't going to be questioned. Not to mention this place was an abundance of information on vampire hunters and bounty hunters.

Sighing he fell onto the bed and stared at the cracks in the ceiling. The way they mapped the entire space of the ceiling it reminded Quatre of looking at a map showing different lives. When the lines ended it made the blonde vampire think of those people's lives ending.

He wondered when the life of a vampire ended... _if_ it actually ended. The legends were that vampires lived for all eternity, but surely even a vampire had its limits. Surely it wasn't true that the beings of the night could actually attain immortality...

Putting those thoughts aside, Quatre sat up and became determined to sort through some info he'd heard last night. There was no time to waste if he hoped to find Trowa soon.

"Let's see... I've heard that there are two vampire hunters that used to come here often in the last year. A Chinese man and a French man..." Thinking back to Trowa, he'd never actually wondered where the brunette had come from. "But they haven't been seen lately since the vampire attacks ceased a few months ago."

The vampire that probably caused all of the disturbances in this town was Heero since all of the attacks had completely stopped a few months ago. They must've stopped around the time he'd found Duo, and since this town wasn't that far from the castle it's an obvious target. Far enough that nobody would really make the connection that he was the vampire, but still close enough that it wasn't a hassle to travel all the way out here.

"This probably used to be a big source of information for whenever they wanted to hear about vampires that people wanted to be hunted down. Yet they stopped coming here... so that might mean they've settled in a town?" The blonde thought about it carefully, but couldn't be sure that was the right conclusion. Right now though it was the only thing he could think about clearly.

After a few more minutes of debating the idea, Quatre finally gave up.

The only thing his mind wanted to do was sleep, and he wasn't going to resist the temptation any longer... After all, night will come soon and then he can go out again.

----

The dusty little bookshop didn't look like anybody had come inside for at least five years, but still he was desperate for a job. Without the extra income Trowa was sure that he and Wufei would have to start going on a very strict diet. Hoping that wouldn't be the case, the brunette gently tapped the bell on the front desk as he waited for the owner to appear.

Sounds of the bell ringing seemed to echo throughout the empty story, and it discouraged the vampire hunter for a moment. He was probably right in assuming the place was shutting down, and once again he'd lost another job opportunity. Just as Trowa turned away he heard footsteps coming towards him.

"May I help you, sir?" An elderly man emerged from a pile of books stacked higher than Trowa thought possible. "If you're here to collect the rent then just get your arse out of here. I don't have to pay any of you people until next week."

His accent was foreign to this area, but Trowa wasn't able to put his finger on where he'd heard it. The man was short and showed signs of his age, but his personality betrayed his appearance.

"No, I'm actually here because of the sign." He used his head to gesture towards the sign in the window asking for a helper. "I really need a job, even if the pay is low."

The man's eyes narrowed, "So this is your last resort, eh?"

He'd managed to catch the vampire hunter off guard, and made Trowa regret how that last statement had come out. Now that he thought about it, this is probably why the brunette had always avoided jobs like this. When it came to job interviews, Trowa could honestly admit that he was absolutely horrid.

"I didn't mean it like that... My friend and I just aren't doing so well right now, and if I don't find a job soon I'm sure we're going to starve." Trowa hated to confess about when he was having problems, but he couldn't let his pride get in the way of feeding himself and Wufei. "If you hire me, I can swear to work whatever hours you request and I'll work hard to keep this job."

Sighing the man set down some of the books in his hand on the dusty counter. There was a look of irritation as he looked over at Trowa and then averted his eyes back towards the front desk. "It's been a long time since anybody's even rang that bell... To think it's just some punk looking for some money... In any case, you're hired, but you'd better keep up your end of the deal. I expect to see you here bright and early tomorrow."

Trowa smiled as the elderly man reminded him a lot of Wufei. Even the way the man looked at him made the vampire hunter feel nostalgic about the first time he'd met his Chinese partner.

"I'll be here early," Trowa promised as he left the shop. He was thankful that he'd finally managed to get a job, and at least tonight he wouldn't let down Wufei once again. "Maybe God really is helping me out this time."

----

Duo had decided to fulfill his promise to Thomas and took him outside in the garden where the orphan went exploring. He watched as the young boy observed every single plant at different angles and in different lights which made the half-vampire wonder what exactly Thomas was looking for.

Perhaps he was one of those truly artistic people who could see many different things from just one object. Duo made a mental note to look for a sketchbook of some sort when he went to town tonight. This once again brought back the memories of last night, and reminded him he hadn't even said a word to Heero all morning.

He honestly didn't want to talk to the vampire after what happened at dinner... walking away like that and being so selfish... Then again Duo realized he was the one who was only thinking of himself at that dinner.

The plans he'd made for Thomas and Heero to get along perfectly were obviously just a delusion he'd created. So why hadn't Duo realized it before? Why did he have to go and put both Heero and Thomas through that situation without even considering the possible outcome?

"Because you're just an idiot... an idealistic idiot." Duo mumbled to himself as he continued watching Thomas.

Apparently Duo had said it louder than he'd intended because Thomas turned around and gave a look of confusion. The half-vampire just plastered a smile on his face hoping to draw the orphan's attention from himself. Instead he saw the boy give an unconvinced frown before turning back to observing the flower.

What was so interesting about that flower?

If Duo remembered correctly, the flower is called a chrysanthemum, and he always remembered them being around the towns whenever someone died. Everyone always associated those flowers with death, but why would they do it when the flower is so beautiful?

Unlike a rose it has no thorns to prick your finger, and there are no other mechanisms it uses to defend itself from humans that hurt when you touch it. So why would they choose such an innocent flower to be the symbol that the Grim Reaper has taken your soul away?

After what seemed like forever Thomas finally walked away from the chrysanthemum and took interest in inspecting some other flower a few feet away. Without realizing it, Duo had gotten up and ripped the chrysanthemum out of the ground. He threw it to the ground and felt the urge to step on it; which he had no problem in obliging that urge.

Death was not going to be anywhere near Thomas. At least not if Duo had anything to say about it.

It wasn't like he'd really intended for the orphan to see him do something so awful and random act against the flower. Not that it was any big deal to kill a flower, but the way he'd so vehemently destroyed the chrysanthemum was unusual. Most likely Thomas wouldn't understand why Duo had done it, but the half-vampire just felt relieved after doing so.

"Thomas are you almost ready to go inside? It's almost noon which means Hilde will be serving lunch right about now." Duo looked over to where he'd last seen Thomas to find the boy gone. "Thomas? Thomas? Where are you?"

He felt a lump in is throat as he knew the garden was pretty dangerous considering they had some pretty rough terrain surrounding the castle. There were several places where it was almost as sheer as a cliff and if you fell you wouldn't be able to move for a while.

"Thomas?!" Now Duo's stomach was forming knots as he tried not to imagine the worst case scenario that Thomas had accidentally fallen and hurt himself... or worse. "Answer me if you can hear me!"

The panic in his voice was evident as he ran through the paths in the garden searching for any evidence Thomas had been there. Just as he was about to completely let the anxiety overwhelm him, Duo heard some footsteps. The half-vampire whirled around to find the orphan right behind him with a puzzled look.

"Dad, are you alright? You're all sweaty and tired." Thomas smiled at Duo not realizing he'd just freaked out the half-vampire really badly.

Duo couldn't stop himself as he fiercely grabbed onto the boy's shoulders and shook him, "Why didn't you answer me when I was calling you?! I thought you fell somewhere and might've _died_! You can't disappear like that!"

Somehow Thomas managed to plead with Duo to stop shaking him, but not before there were clear marks on the boy's arms. "I'm sorry... I just thought I saw someone coming up the path towards the castle and I wanted to say hi."

Nobody ever came up to the castle, because not many people were even capable of seeing it from town. He looked over to where Thomas had indicated and couldn't believe his eyes. Just as the orphan had told Duo there was indeed someone coming up the path, but they didn't seem to really understand where they were.

They stumbled along and tripped a couple of times before making it to the entrance of the garden. Duo put a finger to his lips to tell Thomas to be quiet, and the orphan nodded an affirmative. The half-vampire then mouthed words telling Thomas to stay put and not say a word.

Duo silently began to approach the person stealthily, trying to make sure he wasn't noticed. As he came closer he could see it was most likely a man who was covered head to toe in clothing and not even a bit of skin was exposed to the sunlight. Which meant he was a vampire.

Contrary to most peoples' beliefs, vampires were capable of roaming around in broad daylight but they had to take a lot of special precautions when doing so. Now for no apparent reason, they had a vampire at their door, and Duo had no idea what he was supposed to do about it.

----

**Hey readers! I want to say I will have one more update on... HALLOWEEN! Bum bum bum!**

**Anyway, after chapter seven is updated I'm going to have to go on hiatus for this story for the month of November due to NaNoWriMo. If any of you authors want to check out NaNoWriMo, it has it's own website and I encourage anyone who wants the challenge and loves to write to try it out. **

**Check out their website! (Just type in nanowrimo on Google and you'll find it.)**

**Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	7. Chapter 7

Just a few moments ago Heero had been in a deep sleep, but the unmistakable presence of another vampire woke him in an instant. It was a rare occasion that a vampire would intrude on another vampire's territory, but Heero already knew who it was. Each vampire had an unmistakable 'scent' and Heero remembered it from last night when he went to town. He'd hoped that the vampire would have just gotten over his prey being stolen, but it was obvious from the moment Heero did it the vampire would find him.

He got out of bed but then stopped as he realized what time of the day it was. The vampire must be _extremely_ ticked off to risk himself in broad daylight just for a little revenge. Before leaving his sanctuary, Heero put on a long cloak that shielded from all the sunlight. Stepping out of his room he surprised a servant on the other side.

Immediately the maid began to draw all of the curtains closed to where not even a little bit of sun shone through. More servants followed her example as Heero descended down the stairs to await his intruder. That was around the time he realized that neither Duo nor the orphan were anywhere to be seen.

No time was given for him to search for the two as the intruding vampire burst into the castle. All the servants scurried to close the doors as fast as possible, and as soon as the doors were closed the unknown vampire through off his cloak.

He was much younger than Heero had expected since most vampires that age didn't dare to confront another vampire. Especially one like Heero, with a castle, several servants, and obviously a lot of power.

"You must be the bastard who stole my prey last night!" The vampire's fierce crimson eyes were another sign he was young, because crimson eyes meant the yearning of a partner. "I can't believe you got the guts to go and steal her away from _me_."

Heero uncovered himself as well, "I don't know who _you_ are. But obviously you must have a lot of guts or else a lack of intelligence to come barging into my castle. You must not understand who you're dealing with, but I'm not a bloodling like you if you can't tell."

Bloodling was just a way of describing vampires who were young like this guy, and it could be considered an insult depending on the intention of the word. Right now Heero was actually trying to offend the young vampire, but it was hard not to.

"Thinking you'll scare me of with you big talk? I've heard about you, after you found that _human_ partner you stopped being included with the rest of us vampires. He must've tamed you to be the perfect little pet, right?" The bloodling gave a contempt glare to Heero as he continued on, "The last person I need a lecture from is you, Heero Yuy. Especially after you were the one to cross the line and steal her away."

Whether or not Heero wanted to accept it that was the truth of the matter. Something had made him stupidly save that girl from death even though it would happen eventually. He was still unable to even understand his own actions for what he had done, so how did the bloodling expect him to explain?

"If this is just about not getting some blood then I will just give you one of my own humans to feed off of. After receiving the human you will leave and go on your way."

The bloodling had a sly grin spread across his face as he spoke, "And what if I don't go away? What if I decide I want to steal something just as precious from you?"

Even though the vampire tried to seem serious, it was obviously an empty threat. He had no idea what was precious to Heero, and that meant he wouldn't know what to take away.

Yet even as the bloodling covered himself once again with his cloak and turned away Heero knew to be more wary of him. Heero gestured to a couple of the servants to open the doors, and then Heero faced away from the invading light. He ascended the stairs and watched from the landing as the bloodling was shut out of his castle.

As he began to return to his room Heero realized that he still had seen neither Duo nor Thomas at all. Luckily a servant was nearby and asked him if he'd seen Master Duo or Thomas. The servant pointed a finger towards the window, but Heero knew he meant the garden outside.

"I want you to summon Duo and tell him to meet me." Heero watched as the servant went down the stairs and towards the doors to the outside world.

The same world he was planning on taking away from Duo. His one true love and Heero knew he was stealing something he'd never be able to give back.

Life was something you could steal, but never return.

----

_She was so beautiful even in the dim light of a candle, and perhaps that's what made the woman so beautiful. Stripped naked and standing at the door with a seductive look. A look normally Hilde would never give to anyone, especially not another _woman

_So then... why was she standing there? Sally got out of her bed and found herself to be stripped of all clothing as well. Just as she was about to reach out to Hilde... Duo showed up._

_For some reason the half-vampire wasn't wearing anything either, but his body was a woman's. Instead of acting sexy like Hilde, Duo began running in circles around Sally's bed, and wouldn't allow her to get up. Somehow she'd magically reappeared in bed, but couldn't figure out how._

_Hilde gave Sally a disappointed look and then turned away. She walked out into the dark abyss beyond Sally's room. Duo then ran out of the room as well leaving the vampire all alone on her bed._

_----_

Sally was sitting up in bed sweating as she looked around the room trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Everything was a dream... none of it was real. Even realizing the truth Sally looked over at the door to make sure Hilde was standing there.

The rest of the dream came to her after a few minutes of trying to remember, and she felt the urge to strangle Duo. Why was he in her dreams anyway?

And why was Duo a _woman_ in her dream?

Sally honestly had no rational explanation for the last part since there was no way of explaining that part. Instead of trying to figure her dream out Sally decided to just get back to sleep and hope that she didn't have another dream like that. Whenever she closed her eyes the memory of Hilde standing naked kept flashing through her mind (and occasionally Duo as well though he wasn't as pleasant to look at).

----

Thomas knew he was supposed to remain where he was, but the curiosity was killing him and so the orphan followed Duo very quietly. Once Duo stopped, the orphan made sure not to come any closer in case he made too much noise. It was hard to see the person clearly, but the orphan managed to get a good view of the person as he went into the castle.

Maybe he was going to take away that guy Heero? Thomas quietly prayed that's why the person had come, and after Heero was gone then he and Duo could be happy alone.

Duo crouched in waiting as the front doors were closed, and then suddenly he started to run back to where he thought Thomas was. Thomas grabbed Duo's arm as he passed by, and startled the young man.

"Thomas! I told you to stay back there!" His tone indicated anger, but his face showed anxiety instead. Was the guy who came to visit really that bad?

Without saying another word to Thomas, Duo grabbed the boy's wrist and began to lead him down the path of the garden. Thomas hadn't even seen the path that Duo was taking up to the side of the castle, and wondered how he'd missed it... and how Duo knew about it.

At first it looked like nothing more than a regular wall, but as they got closer the orphan was able to see the outline of a door. It was made the look exactly like the stone of the castle, and now it made sense why Duo was leading him this way. This was a secret entrance in case the vampire was following them.

Once they were right in front of the door Thomas wondered how exactly they were supposed to open the door. But apparently there was no need, because all Duo did was touch the wall and the door swung in.

He was pulled inside and then Duo closed the door behind the both of them. "Now listen Thomas, you can't tell anyone about that door. It's a secret for only emergencies, and if anybody ever found it they would be able to get into the castle without anyone knowing."

Thomas bit his lower lip and nodded. This was one secret he would make sure never to tell anyone not even if he managed to make a best friend someday.

There was another loud bang and then Duo let out a relieved sigh. "He's leaving now, so we can leave this room."

"Where is this room?" Thomas asked as they were walking down a long corridor.

"It's behind the kitchen, but remember you can't tell _anybody_."

The two of them emerged just where Duo said they would, right behind the kitchen. Hilde looked surprised as she saw Duo and Thomas come out of the room, and then she seemed to understand.

"So that really was another vampire?" Hilde asked, and got an affirmative from Duo. "Thank goodness Master Heero made him leave already."

Duo was quiet and it made Thomas look up at the half-vampire. Hilde apparently didn't know how to interpret the silence either as she looked just as confused as the orphan felt. Instead of saying anything more Duo smiled and looked down at Thomas.

"Listen... I'm going to talk with Heero about all of this later, but for now let's do something fun. How about we go down to town right now and get you some new clothes?"

Whatever Hilde was planning on saying to stop Duo from leaving in the middle of the day was stopped as the half-vampire held up a hand to quiet her. Duo then led Thomas out of the kitchen and away from the chef who still didn't speak a word to them.

Thomas felt unsure about it, but Duo didn't seem ready to take no for an answer. Something was making him really need to go down to town, but why? Thomas thought he wasn't allowed to go to town in the day because he was a vampire... or at least part vampire.

"Dad, are you sure you want to?" Thomas looked up at his father, and he just received a kind smile.

The two of them quickly left the castle out of the front entrance which Duo had been so intent on avoiding just a few moments before. Maybe that visitor wasn't ever coming back and it made Thomas wonder who it was. Why did everyone want whoever that stranger was to go away so badly? Did he do something wrong to make everybody dislike him so much?

Almost before Thomas realized it they were on the path leading into the outskirts of the town. How come the first night he'd followed Duo up to the castle had seemed so long, but maybe he was just eager to prove all those other children wrong?

That was one opportunity Thomas had been hoping for, and that was to show all the other children he did have a family now. And Duo was better than any of the other fathers Thomas had seen in town.

"Daddy, can I go see some friends?" Thomas forced himself to look pitiful, and hoped Duo would fall for it. "I haven't seen them in a few days and I just wanted to tell them you adopted me. And I promise not to tell you're secret!"

Still, Duo hesitated to let go of Thomas' hand, but finally the half-vampire did. "You have to _swear_ to me you won't tell _anyone_. If they want to know where you live now, just tell them you live out on the edge of town now."

Thomas smiled sweetly at Duo and stuck out his pinky finger to symbolize the pinky swear. Duo grinned like the first time Thomas had met him and it gave the orphan some relief. Finally it seemed like Duo was able to trust him; at least a little bit more than he had.

"I'll wait for you by the town gate after I talk to my friends." Thomas knew Duo would come and get him once he was done shopping, and didn't feel any worry. After Duo acknowledged the meeting place Thomas turned and ran down the street towards the place he knew the kids always played at.

As he ran down the streets he saw the familiar faces of the townspeople fly by and smiled at them. Now they couldn't make him feel bad for being an orphan, because he no longer was an orphan.

He now has a father, and a wonderful one too.

It only took another five minutes to reach the small area where all the children played when not in school. As soon as he arrived at the spot all the other adolescents stopped to stare at him. Thomas wasn't quite sure _why_ they were staring at him, but the attention wasn't unwelcome.

"Thomas! We thought you were dead!" The only friend he'd ever had ran up and squeezed Thomas till he couldn't breathe.

One of the boys glared at Thomas, "Julia you know everyone would've just been happier if he hadn't come back."

"Shut up Will!" Julia turned back to look at Thomas with her large brown eyes, "Where have you been? I wasn't sure if I was ever going to see you again..."

There were tears in her eyes, but she didn't allow them to fall and instead grabbed Thomas by the hand. She led him over to the only tree in their little field, and the two of them sat down beneath it.

"I finally have a family Julia! A _real _family!" Thomas smiled at his best friend and she gave the most sincere smile back at him.

Without a warning Julia flung her arms around Thomas and hugged the boy, "Thomas that's wonderful!"

Neither of them paid attention to the other kids snickering at them for hugging each other. The two friends were just enjoying the bliss of finally seeing each other after nearly two weeks. Julia had left with her own family on vacation, and hadn't planned on arriving until two days ago. Until now Thomas never even had the chance to properly tell her goodbye.

"Now you can come to dinner with me and my family, and my parents can't stop you! They didn't like you because you were an orphan, but now they have no excuse to turn you away! And you can go to school too so we can see each other all day!" Julia had such a hopeful look that Thomas didn't know if he'd be able to tell her otherwise.

Instead Thomas got up and then offered to help Julia up as well. She smiled as she took his hand and then the two of them walked away from the rest of the children who just stared after them.

"Julia, I can't explain everything to you right now, but I promise to later. I'll try to come back here as soon as possible, and I'll go to the field if I can come to town." Thomas tried to keep his tone soothing, since Julia had a bad time with not crying over little things. "My dad has a lot of stuff going on, but after it's all over I will probably be able to come here everyday. I'll even tell him I want to go to school!"

The young girl seemed lost now and stopped walking. Thomas wanted to say something, but the words wouldn't come. He knew what was going to happen next and he knew he wasn't going to like it.

Even knowing all of that didn't prepare him for the tears. Of all the defenses Julia had, her tears was the best. Nobody could handle the guilt of making her cry because of how her whole body just seemed to shatter when they did.

"Julia don't cry! Listen I'll make sure I'll be able to go to school! I swear!" He stuck his pinky finger in her face until she hooked her pinky with his.

"You better keep your promise!" She managed to say between sniffling.

Not like he had any other choice now.

----

By the time Duo and Thomas returned from their trip to town it was almost nightfall and it made the half-vampire wonder what had took them so long. They left early in the morning and didn't return for almost seven hours. Most likely a lot of other people would be wondering the same thing, since Duo usually only went out at night and only for a couple of hours.

Right now he was trying to figure out what prompted Thomas to feel the need to go to school once it started in about a week. The boy wouldn't explain his reason for why it was absolutely _necessary_ for him to attend, but Duo didn't argue. It would be good for Thomas to get a proper education so when he went out into the normal world he wouldn't be completely lost.

At this moment his prime concern was explaining to Heero why he was gone so long. Heero wasn't going to be mad or anything, but Duo felt guilty because Heero had specifically asked him not to go out a lot during the day.

Once they arrived at the castle Duo went and dropped off all of the clothes he'd bought for Thomas. He left them on the bed knowing that the maid would come put them up later on.

Most likely Hilde was just finishing up dinner, so Duo told Thomas to go downstairs and eat. The half-vampire decided to try and rebuild some trust for the boy by allowing him to go by himself. As soon as he was done eating, Thomas knew to come straight back to his room, and then he was gone.

Descending the stairs two steps at a time, Thomas was immediately out of sight to follow the aroma of food. Duo chose to make his way towards Heero's room in order to get in a little alone time hopefully for some pleasure along with his guilt trip.

Without even knocking the half-vampire barged in on Heero who was in the middle of changing. Duo closed the door and didn't even hesitate to walk right up behind Heero and wrap his arms around his lover's waist. "Good evening Heero."

"I'm not mad you know," Heero was always good at reading Duo's emotions, and once again he hit the nail on the head. Was his guilt really that easy to see? "Never once did I restrict you from leaving during the day, but I just want you to get used to only leaving at night."

Nipping Heero on the neck Duo tried to distract the vampire from in impending explosion of guilt. Really he was trying to distract himself, but this way was at least enjoyable for the both of them.

Yet Heero pulled away from Duo once again in order to put on a shirt. "Not now Duo... for all you know Thomas may burst in at any moment."

"He may be a child, but Thomas knows his limits. I've already warned him that he's never allowed in here." Duo tried to persuade Heero, but it was obviously no use. That's when he decided to go ahead and ask the question Thomas had wanted him to, "By the way... can Thomas start going to school?"

Heero stood still for a second and seemed to really examine the half-vampire. Duo fidgeted because of the uneasiness Heero was making him feel.

"Why would he want to go to school?"

Heero was _really_ good.

"I'm not exactly sure myself, but he wanted to. Maybe to make a few friends so he won't be so lonely all day." Duo tried not to emphasize the word friends too much, because he knew exactly what Heero would be worried about. "Don't worry, I promise that he won't tell anyone about us."

Heero turned away and seemed to contemplate the situation. "It's odd you ask me the same exact thing Sally did earlier... Anyways, I think it would be alright for him to go to school, but if he ever tells _anyone_ things will become very complicated for all of us."

Duo nodded and tried to hide his smile. Now Thomas would be happy to be with his own friends, and it would give Duo more time to spend with Heero.

----

Careful, Quatre knew he had to be cautious as he slipped out onto the streets in search of fresh blood. Already he was sick of the blood Heero had given him, and knew he was just going to have to not get caught getting a drink. Surely he could get a drink without killing the person... right?

From what he'd heard Heero had never done such a thing, but Heero also had a castle in which he may keep servants and people alike. That's probably why Quatre had never seen Heero personally drink from a human, because the vampire tried not to do it in front of Duo. Yet it made it difficult for Quatre to observe how another full-fledged vampire acted.

He felt suspicious walking out alone on the streets at night, but then he also noticed some other people around too. Dressed like him, and just enjoying the company of friends'. Perhaps he wasn't the only person who came out this late after the sun set, but there was still an obvious difference between him and those people.

They were normal. They could go out day or night and enjoy their lives to the fullest, and even though the blonde didn't want to admit it... he missed being like that. When there wasn't a fear of the sun and he could honestly go out and enjoy himself, but that life was over now.

Most of the time Quatre had to be so wary about everything that it almost made the blonde vampire wonder why people always wanted to be a vampire. It wasn't nearly as luxurious and wonderful as people made it seem, and Quatre didn't know if he wanted to live for an eternity.

A drunken woman stumbled out of a tavern and clung to Quatre, and tried to hit on him. Her slurred words made would've made any normal man leave her there on the street, but Quatre realized she was the perfect person. Alcohol made the blood taste a little nasty, but Quatre really didn't care at the moment.

Nobody was going to miss some woman who was completely wasted and didn't even sense any danger when Quatre pulled her into the dark alley nearby. She didn't even seem to notice when the blonde bit into her neck and began to greedily drink in the tainted blood. Tainted or not, he was starving and it tasted so good... Without realizing it he eventually had nothing more left to drink in her body, and Quatre allowed the woman to fall to the ground.

"Did I kill her...?" He knew it was a stupid question; people don't normally lie on the ground motionless without a pulse. Without a second thought the blonde vampire fled the scene of his horrible crime, and he felt this numbness.

He was nothing more than a monster. Why on earth would anybody want to be a vampire?

All they did was kill, and live off of death.

----

**Happy Late Halloween! I really meant to post yesterday, but... you know how things get when it's a holiday and you're hyper off of candy. (winkwink)**

**Anyway, like I said I'm going on hiatus for the month of November. I'm _really_ sorry that I have to do this, but with NaNoWriMo starting today... I just won't have the time to type up more chapters of this and my NaNoWriMo project; not to mention school on top of all of that.**

**So I hope you guys don't hate me for this. But I promise that as soon as November is over that I will start up again with this series and nothing else. **

**Besides that I hoped everyone enjoyed!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell (See ya'll in December!)**


	8. Chapter 8

Duo wasn't sure whether or not he was happy about Thomas attending school now. It was a big risk for everyone in the castle and it made Duo feel like he was just abandoning the child for the day. Thomas didn't seem to feel that way at all though, so Duo never said anything that might guilt the young boy into just staying in the castle. In reality Thomas actually seemed quite happy getting the chance to go somewhere unsupervised which was another thing that scared Duo.

"Remember Thomas, you promised no matter what happens you won't tell anyone we're vampires. You _swore_ to me you wouldn't, so make sure to keep that promise. If you tell you're going to have a lot worse happen than just being sent to your room." Duo didn't want to scare his foster son (as he now called him), but there was no other way to really get the point across to Thomas. "Now you go ahead and go enjoy your first day of school."

The half-vampire had taken Thomas to the edge of town, but didn't feel like going any farther. Duo didn't have much to worry about Thomas skipping or getting kidnapped or something like that. He was street-wise and knew how to escape just about any situation; just like Duo always had. But unlike Duo, Thomas was really eager to go to school.

When Duo was a child he'd actually hated school so much that he'd refused to go when he was about nine years old. In a way he regrets it, but honestly it's not like he missed all that much back then. He probably just would've been constantly bullied anyway.

"I'll see you later Dad!" Thomas kissed Duo on the cheek before running into town and turning the corner where Duo could no longer see him. In reality Duo had never expected it to be so hard to watch your own 'child' go off on there own. Since he'd only had Thomas for a short time and it was already so hard on him... Duo couldn't imagine what parents must feel like when raising their children for sixteen or more years.

After reminding himself school would be over around sunset Duo was about to head back to the castle when he felt a strange presence. Instead he started to walk out into the forest that surrounds the town and tried to look casual about it. As he was walking at first he started to think he was just becoming paranoid like Heero. So he relaxed a bit, but after a while the half-vampire felt a presence again that was not familiar or weak.

It was a strong aura stronger than Duo's, but not even close to being stronger than Heero. He tried to not let it show that he felt a lump rising in his throat and his stomach felt like it was about to explode. There was no mistaking it or denying it now. Duo was being stalked just like a mouse unable to see its predator, the cat, when it is about to pounce.

Yet the mouse didn't have reflexes anywhere close to Duo's. Years of living on the streets along with his vampire powers helped him react as someone jumped out to grab him.

At first Duo had thought he'd outsmarted the attacker and was about to flit, but out nowhere someone punched him directly in the face. He fell into a tree to try to recover his balance, but right away he was hit again in the stomach this time. He crumpled to the ground holding his stomach in pain, and finally his attacker was standing still.

Whoever it was, they were standing over him as if they'd already won, but Duo wasn't that weak. He pretended for another second that he was going to surrender before using his leg to knock the attacker on his ass. Duo jumped on top of the person and found him to be... the vampire that had come to the castle the day before.

He was grinning with obvious triumph, but Duo didn't know why. Duo was the one on top, meaning he'd won, so why did this man seem to think that he'd won?

"You must be the partner of that vampire Heero... you're the one I've been looking for." The vampire said with a little mocking in his voice, and then somehow managed to use his pinned hand to throw dirt in Duo's eyes.

Just as the strange vampire had expected Duo lost his grip and so the half-vampire was thrown into another tree. This time Duo was knocked unconscious and didn't get up to fight back once again.

"I guess I expected more of a challenge from you, but then again you are still part human." The vampire picked Duo up and threw him over his shoulder before flitting off.

----

Thomas was so glad to finally be back with his old friends again. Well in truth his only friend that still bothered to talk to him after the incident two years ago was Julia. She was the only one of all the children who still liked him, and even though Thomas didn't want to admit it he really liked Julia. Perhaps it's because she was not only really pretty, but kind and smart too.

A girl like her came only once in a lifetime, and even though Thomas knew he's only a child he at least understood that he shouldn't ever let her go. As he ran up to the school he stared at all the children he'd never even met before. Most likely their parents didn't want them to hang around orphans just like Julia's.

For the first time ever he was going to school and he could proudly proclaim he has a real family. Not that he'd forgotten his promise about keeping their secret, but there was nothing wrong with telling everyone how awesome his father is. Almost like before all the other children gave him weird looks obviously wondering why he was here.

Yet they couldn't kick him out this time.

Now he wasn't able to be thrown on the street and told he was nothing but trash. Those kids had no choice but to respect him now that he had a father that could kick their asses and all their fathers' as well. Although they didn't know it yet, he wouldn't hesitate if someone tried to call him out for a fight.

Julia smiled and nearly knocked him into the dirt by flinging herself at him. "Oh Thomas! I'm so glad you kept your promise! I was so afraid that you would tell... not that I don't trust you Thomas. But when you left I knew it would probably be hard for you to go through all this trouble... just because of me..."

"Don't cry Julie! All that matters is that we can hang out all day together now." Thomas was led by the hand over to a small wooden bench where Julia sat down and waited for Thomas to do the same. "So what's school like? I know you've been coming here for a few years now, but this will be my first year ever!"

Her smile was sweet as she looked over at the schoolhouse, and it made Thomas wonder why she looked so dreamy. Thomas poked her in the side to wake her up from the daze, and she jumped since she's so ticklish. "Why'd you do that?!"

She really hated it when people did that.

"Julie, you were staring off into space like someone had stolen your brain or something." Thomas smiled, but then when _he_ walked out Thomas understood what Julie had been hoping to see. Unfortunately Thomas was made into a fool as he remained staring at the boy just hoping his eyes deceived him.

"That boy Rudolf is the only reason I ever want to go to school... besides you of course! Now that you're here we can hang out all the time too!" Obviously Rudolf wasn't unaware of Julia's feelings as he walked up to her with a smile that made Thomas grit his teeth.

He looked over at Thomas for a brief moment, but the foster child was able to see right through his soft azure eyes. He was pure evil on the inside, but how could he make Julia see that?

----

The town had become quite lively after the mysterious murder of a young woman, but Quatre wasn't sure whether he was glad for the people being stirred up or not. Now people were passing around rumors that they wanted to hire the famous vampire hunters. With that bit of news floating around Quatre's ears perked up while taking a calm stroll in the night air.

A couple of men were just talking about how they'd heard the vampire hunters' had an area nearby where you could hire the two of them. The only problem was that Quatre wasn't close enough to hear what town the men were talking about. As he began to move closer he suddenly noticed the many police parading up and down the streets. One officer stopped the guys' conversation and told them to head home in case the killer was looking for new victims tonight.

If only they knew... Quatre decided not to take his chances in case anyone recognized him as the killer. Getting into trouble with the police was not how he intended to spend the rest of the townspeople's lives. Instead he ran up to the two men and tried to play innocent with them.

"Excuse me; I heard your conversation about the vampire hunters... I was wondering where they are now." Quatre did his best not to let his vampire instincts take over at the sight of easy victims. "If you tell me I can go and get them to come here."

"They're in the next town to the east, but good luck kid. Now the police on alert and patrolling the streets like crazy. Most likely they won't let you leave town until sunrise because they're worried about more victims popping up." One of the men used his thumb to gesture over his shoulder at the officers. "You'd better get inside for sure... and easy victim like you could get killed tonight if you don't watch your back!"

All Quatre could think was, '_If they only knew..._'

These people were trying to protect him while unknowingly giving him just the information he was looking for. It made Quatre wonder what he looked like now. Being a vampire he had no reflection in mirrors, and the only time he'd taken photos was when he was younger. Back then he looked so innocent and naïve from the true horrors of the world, and Quatre didn't deny being that way.

As a young and very spoiled child Quatre had only looked forward to the finer things in life everyday. Or so he thought. When in reality he was only looking forward to being more spoiled from the presents Daddy got him, the great desserts the chef was obligated to make, and being treated the nicest since he was the youngest of the family. Back then he was also considered the next heir for everything his father owned.

That was another thing he truly looked forward to when he was growing up. It's quite a horrible thought to want to hurry up and inherit everything, but that's what the blonde vampire had wanted as a human. Fortunately as he grew older he began to lose some of the avarice and selfish mannerisms, and started to mature into a person who cared about more than his own future.

It was about two years after he'd made that change that he'd been kidnapped by Heero to the castle where he'd started his life over again. Quatre had wanted that chance for some time, but he'd never imagined ending up like this. A creature of the night forever doomed to seek out the blood of young innocents… Yet whenever he saw Duo that cruel image was taken away from Quatre's sight as he now saw vampires in a different light.

Vampires are just like humans except they're forced to live under stricter conditions. No sunlight, the only food that will really give you nourishment is blood, and they could never see what they looked like unless they had their portrait painted. It's not all that glorious of a lifestyle as people seem to think. Most vampires don't kill random people unless by accident or unless they let the power they've attained take over.

Nobody can deny that there are some undesirable vampires who have no limitations to what they will or won't do. Vampires like this had started to grow in numbers in the last century as Heero told him, but Quatre had yet to actually encounter one. Luckily many of those vampires live closer to London or other more populated areas. The little cities around here were nothing compared to Paris or London.

Most of the rumors Quatre had heard about these power-hungry vampires is they purposely kill people when feeding on them, make many more vampires or servants than necessary, and some of them eve collect small harems of human and sometimes vampires. These were the kind of vampires Quatre hoped to never encounter, and thankfully he hadn't so far.

As he turned the corner he glanced discreetly over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching him. He made a run for the town's gate, but as he approached he could see it was closed. Slowly coming to a halt he started to ponder what options he had in this situation. Since there were no witnesses nearby he could just jump the wall or he could wait until tomorrow morning for the gate to open and be fried by the sun.

Pretty obvious choice.

----

Sally knew she must look dumb to most of the servants doing their work around her. She had been hiding behind just about anything that would get her out of plain view as she silently stalked Hilde. As creepy as the blonde knew she was acting her dream had really shown her what she was feeling inside.

Normal people (or vampires) don't usually dream about people they hardly know like that. It was still unfortunate the dream was eventually ruined by Duo, but Sally was glad to just have had the dream. It made her start to really wonder what her true feelings were, and now she was on a mission to find out.

As the chef moved about her usual business she never seemed to notice she had another shadow constantly on her heels. Sally didn't want to be known as a stalker though, so she was glad for Hilde being so oblivious.

But after a few hours of doing nothing except cooking Sally started to get bored and wanted to talk to Hilde. So she staged it as if the whole thing was just casual and she hadn't just been watching her for hours. Positioning herself outside the door, Sally was about to take a step when all of a sudden she felt pain and then it all went black.

Luckily for Sally she was having the same nice dream again, but then Duo appeared again to ruin her dream. She really despised him for taking her attention away from Hilde, and wanted him out of her dream.

Yet Sally never had the chance to beat Duo up for doing that because she was shook awake by somebody. They were trying hard to get her to wake up, but that was the last thing the blonde wanted at the moment. Eventually she had no choice and opened her eyes to find herself face to face with Hilde. She was startled by the chef and pushed the woman away as she got up.

"What are you doing?" Sally asked with a harsh voice, and regretted it immediately.

The scared look Hilde gave the blonde vampire made her just want to run and hide because of the embarrassment. Obviously the whole reason she'd been following Hilde was just so she could get a chance to discover her feelings, but now she'd pretty much ruined the opportunity. Hilde got up and Sally tried not to look as flustered as she felt, but it was probably wasted effort.

"When I opened the kitchen door I must've hit you and I knocked you unconscious. I was just checking to see if you're alright... but obviously you are! So I'll just clean this mess up." Sally's eyes looked over toward the disaster she'd caused… All the spilled food and blood that would probably cause a permanent stain. "You can go ahead, I'm sorry about all of this..."

Sally bent down and began to help the chef clean it up. Hilde hesitated for a moment, probably stunned at her behavior, but Sally kept her eyes towards the ground. She didn't want to show anything that might arouse suspicion about why she was acting so nice. As the two of them continued to clean up they eventually began to have small talk.

Somehow they had started to talk about how ugly the floor looked without the new stain or with it. Then their conversation continued to take a lot of twists and turns until they ended up talking about Thomas. Everyone in the castle could tell Heero wasn't crazy about having the child run around with Duo, but it would be impossible to get rid of Thomas because Duo liked him so much.

"I wonder why Duo likes Thomas so much when he hardly knows anything about him." Hilde had started to try and scrub off the stain, but so far it wasn't doing any good. "After all the first night they met it was just a coincidence, right?"

The blonde vampire didn't want to give Hilde the wrong impression about Duo, but the truth is the truth. "He only brought they boy here, because he pities him. Duo won't admit it, but he sees himself in Thomas and that made him reach out. Had it been some other child Duo probably wouldn't have brought the child home."

Hilde was quiet for a moment and the only sound that echoed down the empty corridor was the scrubbing. Her pace started to slow down and she looked up from the floor. "I don't think that's true Sally… Duo has a big heart and no matter who came to him, I have the feeling he wouldn't have left them there. It's not so much pity… more like an understanding of what they're going through."

That made Sally stop when she realized what the chef was doing. She was making excuses for Duo… The blonde tried not to imagine the worse as she tried to rationalize why Hilde would do that for Duo. The obvious reason was that she was just a good friend and didn't want to hear people talk badly about her friends. Another possible reason could be that Hilde is in- no... Hilde can't have those kinds of feelings for an idiot like Duo.

Neither of them said anything else for the rest of the time they sat there scrubbing the floor. Eventually Sally started to notice it was getting late in the afternoon and saw a servant close by. She ordered them to continue trying to clean up the mess, and told Hilde to just let the servant do the work.

"I am a servant Master Sally, so I should continue to work as well."

Hilde made sure Sally heard the word master, but the blonde paid that no mind. "Then go do your job as the chef."

Reluctantly the chef left the servant alone in the corridor with Sally as she went back to the kitchen. Sadly, whatever moment the two of them had just had was now ruined completely. It made Sally want to turn time back and have a redo instead of accepting this outcome. Reality really did suck sometimes…

Instead of dwelling on that fact, Sally decided to go check the castle of anything that needs to get done. Chores, perhaps finding some broken windows or something… anything to keep her mind off of how horribly she'd just ruined the only chance she'd ever get.

As she patrolled the castle she began to wonder what Duo was doing in town for so long. Most likely taking advantage of the freedom he was getting, and was exploring the newer parts of the town. Sally had always wanted to go back to the town to see how things had changed from when she had been there. Her kidnapping had been five years ago, and back when Zechs was the possible partner for Heero.

That was the time when she had become legendary as the only woman to be allowed as an officer of the law in that town. People had always been so against women enforcing the law because they've always considered women too fragile and dainty. Sally had been the first woman accepted and made her status legendary as she shot through the ranks to become the chief of that branch of police. Then they had decided to kick her out because they claimed she was too weak to have such a position of power.

After that she became a bounty hunter of sorts that would team up with police to hunt down criminals, and never once did she fail at obtaining her target. Her life had been good for the short while she lived the bounty hunter lifestyle, and then one night she was out on a manhunt when someone abducted her. She had later discovered this was Zechs who had been hoping to kiss up to Master Heero by finding more servants. Yet Heero hadn't wanted any at that time so she ended up being thrown in the basement for a long time.

Then one day she was saved by the man who had abducted her before, and she tried not to let the irony of the situation make her laugh.

Without realizing it, Sally had gotten so lost in her memories she'd wound up in front of Master Heero's room. The vampire was in a deep sleep, and knowing this made Sally feel the need to burst in and demand why. Her entire life had basically been ruined by Zechs and Heero all those years ago, and instead of letting her go back to her lifestyle she'd ended up a hostage in the basement of the castle. She could've gone back to living a normal life had it not been for _him_!

Her hand was shaking violently as it waited for her mind to command it to open the door and attack Heero. Yet she took a deep breath and forced herself to let go of the door. There was no point in attacking Heero... whether she wanted to admit it or not he helped her life as well as destroyed it. Were it not for him she probably would've had a few good years as a bounty hunter before she became too old to do it anymore and probably would've died alone and unhappy.

So without really intending to Heero had most likely saved Sally from the fate of most humans in these recent years. Especially lately since people now have started to be getting rapidly sick in these areas, and inflation was forcing more and more into poverty. Perhaps these recent fears of a new plague weren't totally impossible as Sally had previously expected. For the past few years she'd heard hints of people in neighboring countries rapidly getting sick with the same symptoms and dying within a couple of weeks if not days.

Yet when it first began to happen she discarded the information as nothing more than a rumor, and since nothing happened to any of the people in her little hometown... that's all she'd assumed it to be.

----

**Hello again readers! I'm back from my hiatus! Sorry if it was too long of a wait, but I would like to say I did manage to complete my NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 word novel! Now that I've done that I promise to focus my writing on this series (for the most part). **

**So I'm hoping this was a good chapter (I had to go back and read everything to figure out where I'd left off) and I'm hoping everyone is satisfied with it. Expect another chapter soon!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	9. Chapter 9

_This horrible feeling... Why couldn't it just all end right now? If that happened then at least he wouldn't have to go through all of this horrible pain. Yet that's exactly what life was, and ironically he'd never noticed that fact before. Without the suffering what could he be happy to have in his life? But does any human... or non-human deserve to go through this much? _

_Honestly Heero couldn't believe that was a fact. In fact he wanted it to be nothing but a phase that would soon pass. Yet it was obvious from what he'd learned in the last ten years that without finding his partner this agony would continue until the moment he lost any trace of humanity left in him. Undead or not there was still something inside of him that kept him from completely becoming the beast he's destined to be. All vampires have it, but usually they never last more than about a hundred years with no partner. _

_Even if they're just temporary... Heero needed someone to take that place, and if he ended up uncovering his true partner then he'd just discard the temp. That was the only plan he could come up... and that's where Zechs came into the picture. Zechs was an attractive man, and no person could deny it._

_He was tall with beautiful pale skin showing his family's status in the human world, and his stunning blue eyes were to die for. Unfortunately in Zechs' case that literally what happened. Heero hadn't really intended to take the man away so suddenly, but it was impossible to stay away from such an enchanting person that finally the vampire gave into his desires and stole Zechs away in the middle of the night._

_When the blonde aristocrat woke up to find he'd lost everything he'd ever gained in his human life... he took it rather well. Much to Heero's surprise there was actually a sort of relief that Zechs expressed when he heard everything. The only thing he'd told Heero on that first day was, 'I'm just glad I no longer have to bear the burden of that family...'_

_----_

Waking up in a cold sweat was not what Heero had been hoping for, but the dream brought back many memories that made him feel guilty. It made him wonder if he was really good enough to do the same thing to Duo. What if the history repeated himself and he ended up killing Duo as well for another person he believed to be his partner?

"No, Duo is different from Zechs..."

Heero wanted to say that he hadn't just impulsively taken Duo away, but wasn't it exactly the same? The vampire had watched Duo for a couple of years before finally making his move, but he'd only watched Zechs for a few months before taking him. Still there was a time Heero had almost decided to forever bind himself with Zechs believing the blonde vampire was his true partner.

That was the night he'd gotten some crazy urge to go speak with a fortune teller just to see what she'd say about them. Because of that fortune-teller Heero had waited to see if this person with 'amethyst eyes' would appear just as she claimed. Almost exactly as the woman had predicted it was only about fourteen years later when Heero had finally caught sight of an orphan with stunning amethyst eyes.

After that he became absolutely focused on studying everything about the young man, and waited until he was at least to an age he could be considered a man. When that time came Heero made his move, and had never regretted it until now...

Why had this dream shaken him up so badly? Perhaps it was the timing that caught him off guard with that bloodling threatening to make him regret what he'd done. The bloodling hadn't really made him worried at first, but suddenly there was something inside of him warning him something was going terribly wrong. As he pulled the slightly open to view the time of day he found it to be nearly sunset, and Duo hadn't returned yet.

There was definitely something wrong... Never once had Duo decided to spend the entire day out in town for fear of recognition. Sometimes the half-vampire was reckless when it came to hiding his identity, but he was a complete moron when he knew what was at stake. Then came the feeling of endless hunger...

Never had he experienced such a strong urge to feed... That meant something had happened to Duo!

Heero grabbed the same cloak he always wore when he emerged in the daylight and burst out of his room. Sally surprised him as she just stood outside his door silently, and he nearly broke her nose flinging the door open.

"Why are you standing outside my door? I almost hit you because of your carelessness." Heero didn't wait for a response from the blonde vampire, and instead turned his attention to the doors leading to the world of humans. Sally grabbed his arm and stopped him, but he refused to look at her. "Let go of me Sally, there's something wrong."

"Master Heero! You can't go outside and risk yourself! Let me or one of the other servants go in your place!" She just didn't understand exactly _what_ was going on! If Heero was separated from Duo for too long... who knows what is bound to happen. "Please just stay here and allow me to go out for him. I used to be an infamous bounty hunter if you don't remember!"

Sally was right... but Duo wasn't just his partner keeping his sanity. Unlike most vampires, he had a bond that he knew breaking would destroy him entirely. Heero hesitated to call it _love_, but for lack of a better word that's what he described it as. The vampire had fallen hopelessly in love with the half-vampire, and losing him now would result in dire consequences for everyone... In his rage even the rats of the town wouldn't be spared.

After another moment he finally looked her straight in the eye, "If you don't bring him back _alive_ and well... You shall truly find out the wrath of an unrestrained full-blooded vampire."

----

Worry was the first emotion to actually set in once Thomas saw the sun setting on the horizon and did not see even a little hint of Duo. What if something had happened to the only person to actually treat him with true signs of actual affection. Then came fear... what if Duo was hurt or dying somewhere and he was just standing here not doing a thing to help?

Then again, what if he was just late and would be here in a few minutes? That's why Thomas had resolved to stay next to the school in case that was the situation. Yet there was a distinct feeling he had that it wasn't just a simple punctuality problem with Duo, because he knew how paranoid the half-vampire was about Thomas. Even with only being around him for a few days, it showed quite a bit. Still, he didn't want to jump to unnecessary conclusions just to discover nothing was wrong.

Once the sun had set beyond the huge mountains though... no longer did Thomas feel the previous worry or fear for Duo. In fact all he felt was anger and betrayal. In his mind Thomas had known all along putting his trust in someone like Duo would only end up with him out on the streets again. But something about the half-vampire had really made Thomas want to open up to him and place his trust there.

"Why did I have to be such an idiot?" Thomas was sitting in the little area where all the children had gone to immediately after school. Instead he'd decided to wait for Duo at the schoolhouse knowing it would just help the day go smoother. After the sun had set and all the children left the area Thomas had finally gone there and started to plan what he should do. "Of all nights... he had to abandon me on the first night of winter... I didn't dress for this kind of weather..."

Pondering his choices, Thomas had chosen the warmest spot he'd imagined there was. It was next to the tree where he and Julia had sat down for the first time when he was actually a child with a family. Now he was back to his life as an orphan, he supposed, and most likely it would be a short one. Even though he was a child, Thomas wasn't totally ignorant to what was happening in the world.

All of the most recent people to move into this town in the last year told tales of their escaping from 'The Black Death'. At first no one believed these people until finally word came from various sources that the rumors were true. Yet this little area is so isolated from the rest of the world that luckily no serious epidemic had started here. There were one or two people here or there, but not like in the other towns.

Just as Thomas was about to make himself comfortable he caught a person lurking in the shadows. It was a man, and quite a tall, burly one at that. He was coming right towards Thomas, but probably hadn't seen the orphan yet. The boy hid himself behind the trees shadow discreetly as the burly man was followed by a thin young doctor.

"Your wife will definitely recover within a few days if she continues taking this remedy. I've specially made it for her, so there is nothing to worry about." The young doctor seemed so sure of himself, but there was something in the way his hands continued to fidget that showed his nervousness.

"People are saying she has the Black Death! Nobody's been cured of it yet!"

Almost like another person had taken over the fidgeting young man became confidant. "Sir, just because she has one of the symptoms... the rosy rings, right? It does not definitely mean she has the Black Death. Believe me, just allow her to rest and do not allow her near the children or anyone else."

Thomas was silent as the two of them wrapped up the conversation and headed back to the tall man's house. He had a horrible feeling having overheard such a terrible conversation... Yet he wanted to trust the doctor and believe that the man had finally created a remedy. There was not telling for sure, but Thomas tried to put it out of his mind as he curled up on the ground and tried to force himself to sleep.

Somehow he'd managed to fall asleep, but he woke up before morning which he hadn't expected. He felt someone was nearby, and was getting a horrible feeling. As he carefully looked at his surroundings he heard someone breathing heavily, and they were nearby. As he surveyed the surroundings he finally was able to see the person who was breathing so heavily standing over him.

He contemplated what running would do and if the person would try to catch him. But then all he could think about was where that awful smell was coming from... it came out of nowhere and he couldn't figure out what could possibly smell this bad. The person above him got on her knees and reached out to touch Thomas. He jumped up and backed away from her.

That's when he realized where the smell was coming from... the woman had 'The Black Death' and was beginning to rot. Thomas ran away from the woman and from the realization that if she had touched him he could've been infected! The doctors in town told people that it was a disease that was contagious by touching skin-to-skin. He wasn't sure if that was accurate or not, but he wasn't about to risk it.

After he realized he'd run far enough away he slumped against the wall and just felt the exhaustion setting in. Looking around he realized that he was in the better part of town compared to where he usually hung around. This was the part of town where Julia probably lived, and maybe even that evil guy Rudolf. That just made Thomas angry to think that Julia liked Rudolf so much...

He's the _only_ reason she goes to school is what she said. So what was Thomas to her? Probably just a friend or something like that... but that's not what he wanted to be. What he wished to be was something like her beau... But that wasn't likely at all because of their differences.

She was born in a high class while he was the lowest of the low. There was _no_ chance he'd ever get to be with her. It didn't help that he had fallen hopelessly in love though, because she's the only girl he ever thought about so fondly.

He fell asleep once again on that street corner thinking of Julia, and had very pleasant dreams.

----

Duo felt his body aching all over, but most of all felt a terrible emptiness. Something of this caliber had never plagued Duo, and he couldn't figure out why. He tried to sit up and his body made sure it was really difficult. His head was pounding, and all of his muscles were screaming in agony. The only question that Duo had was _why the hell was he in this much pain_?

He tried to take in his surroundings, but everything was distorted and unfamiliar. So instead of continuing to figure out where he was, the half-vampire just closed his eyes and laid back down.

The only thing he could tell was that this was obviously a place made to hold someone captive. There were chains around his wrists that kept him on 30-foot long chains. Long enough to not let him wander, but at least the person gave him some room to move about his small cell. Most likely the restraints were just a precaution in case he got violent. He didn't think they were necessary, but obviously the person who'd put him in here thought it was.

"So you've finally woken up." A voice was mocking him, but Duo was in too much pain to sit up and see who it was. It obviously wasn't anyone he knew, not that he expected any of his friends to ever take him captive, but as far as he was aware he'd never done anything to this person. "I can't believe the legendary vampire lord Heero would take _you _of all the people he had to choose from."

In a way the voice reminded him of what Zechs was saying before... is it really that unbelievable that he got together with Heero? According to the fortune-teller their relationship was destiny. So why is it that everyone was so against them ever even being in the presence of each other?

"You moron, wake up!" Somehow the person had gotten into his cell and was standing right beside him. To make Duo 'wake up' the person kicked him hard in the ribs, and Duo knew it probably had just broken at least one rib. He rolled onto his side as a defense, but the guy wouldn't let him. Instead he was picked up and forced on his feet. "You're nothing like I expected... but I can say some rumors about you are true."

"Rumors...? Who are you?" Duo blinked as he looked directly at the face of a young man whose looks betrayed his strength. "What the hell is going on?"

"I suppose you don't really remember me that well, do you? Just a little while ago I came to say hello to Heero, and I made him a promise I intend to keep." Without warning the young man was using his finger to trace the line from Duo's neck to his collarbone. Duo immediately tried to pull away, but was unable to. "So you're not as dumb as you look."

He let Duo go with a smirk and began to walk away without answering any questions. Yet the half-vampire wasn't ready to allow this guy to go without even finding out where he was or why he was here. "Who are you?"

The young man sighed and looked down at Duo as if he was absolutely pathetic, "If you must know my name it's Janus."

Even though Duo knew the two of them had never met, the name sounded so familiar to him. Where had he heard it before? He allowed Janus to leave in order to ponder why the name was familiar to him. So once again he was left alone in the dark room with no knowing where he was or why he was here. But at least he knew something now, even if it is just a name.

He tried to remember if he'd ever heard the name before, but nothing came to mind. The year he'd actually been half-vampire Heero had never spoken about other vampires that much. At least not vampires outside of their own castle, and even though he felt stupid now Duo never believed there were many vampires outside of Heero's castle. Now he was able to see how obvious it should've been that there are plenty of other vampires out in the world, but maybe he just didn't want to believe that.

It made him feel superior to everyone if he was one of the few vampires rather than just one of many vampires. His head began to pound telling him to just stop thinking and go back to sleep, but Duo didn't think it was such a good idea. He didn't want to let his guard down even for a second if he could help it, but obviously his body had other plans. Instead of obeying him when he wanted to sit up, Duo's body remained motionless on the dirt floor. At least he was able to recognize that the floor was dirt which was a sign his head was beginning to clear. Now everything looked a little more clear and less distorted compared to earlier. Yet he still couldn't figure out where he was.

Finally after a few more hours, Duo's body could no longer try to function and he ended up falling asleep. His sleep was cursed with nightmares of things he didn't imagine were possible. But he was woken up as two men were unlocking his restraints. His first thoughts were to try and escape, but his body was still too exhausted to do anything but allow the men to drag him to their destination. As they were taking him to the new area the only thing Duo could remember from his horrible dream was the feeling of dread and fear.

When he tried to remember anything that was happening in the dream or who was there all that came up was a blank. Even so Duo had the distinct feeling of déjà vu like perhaps this was exactly what his dream had been about. Once he realized this was his chance to figure out where he was apparently they had already gotten to the place these huge men had been ordered to bring him. They dropped him and Duo looked around to find himself most likely in the basement of a castle similar to Heero's.

"I like this place much better than the other area, don't you?" Janus was smirking at Duo as the half-vampire tried to get up. "I wouldn't put so much effort trying to do the impossible. As soon as I brought you to my territory I drugged you to make sure that you wouldn't cause any trouble."

Duo knew it should've been obvious that he'd been drugged, but it was hard to think clearly in this state. "Why did you bring me here? I haven't done anything to you, and neither did Heero..."

Janus laughed and this seemed even more familiar to Duo as the vampire moved closer. "That's where you're wrong Duo... Heero was the one who initiated this by stealing my prey from me. That's not even the worst part though, he let her _go_. No vampire in their right mind would let easy prey like that escape, and especially after he went through the trouble of stealing her from me!"

Finally managing to stand up Duo was starting to feel his head clear a little, and his body was responding better. "All of this over something so stupid? You must be out of your mind."

"You've done something as well _Maxwell_," the vampire said Duo's name with such spite that it made the half-vampire freeze up. "You've taken such a great vampire as Heero and turned him into something so pathetic! Don't think that the rest of us vampires haven't noticed how much he's changed from how he used to be. I used to look up to that loser, and now I'm ashamed for saying so. And it's all your fault he's become this way."

Duo was still frozen by how this stranger knew his name... he had never even told anyone besides Heero his surname before. So how did this guy know it? Obviously Duo did know Janus from somewhere, but he was finding it impossible to remember.

Who is Janus? Or who _was_ Janus before he became a vampire?

----

**Here's another chapter just to show the story is still going! **

**Merry Christmas to all you guys!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	10. Chapter 10

What the hell happened to Duo? Only he is capable of disappearing into thin air without a trace in just a few hours. Now not only was everyone in the castle going to suffer, but most likely this entire town would as well. All because Duo had to once again be careless and forget to at least check in with Heero. Sally had never imagined the half-vampire to be so irresponsible, but she'd learned never to doubt something like this would happen. It was just another typical thing of Duo to do... the only reason she wouldn't strangle him on sight was because of Heero's warning.

As she descended down the mountain she stopped as something unusual caught her eye. Sally could tell something had happened, but found it odd that it happened on the very edge of the forest. Most likely an ambush from the look disturbed area, but her main clue was the small scrap of cloth that looked similar to Duo's clothing. Without a moment of hesitation Sally went into the town and headed in the direction she knew to be the schoolhouse. She knew Duo wouldn't be there, but hopefully Thomas would and perhaps he could enlighten her about what happened.

The schoolhouse was completely empty of all signs of life which left the vampire with no clue of where to search next. Instead of dwelling on the reality of the situation, Sally tried to be optimistic and decided to search the town in hopes of finding the boy. She called his name and searched everywhere for the orphan, and just as she was about to give up hope when she found him. It was nearly morning when she finally discovered the child asleep on the street corner. Oddly enough he looked at peace as he slept on the cold ground.

"Thomas wake up!" She shook the boy awake, and once Thomas had opened his eyes there was a look of shock. "What are you staring at? Hurry up and get on your feet!"

"I thought that you guys had abandoned me already... since Duo never showed up I was sure that I was being dumped again." Thomas wanted to hug Sally, but knew better than to do that. "So where is Duo...? Is he alright?"

Sally let out an exasperated sigh as she knew what this meant... Thomas had no idea what happened to Duo either. This was becoming troublesome, and now she had no leads whatsoever in figuring out what happened to the half-vampire.

Not only was she annoyed and disappointed at the realization, but fear also began to consume her. Just knowing that Heero was waiting for her to return with Duo, and the thought of her not showing up with the half-vampire was horrible. Imagining what would happen to the townspeople if she didn't bring Duo back was even worse to imagine.

"You don't know anything about what happened...? Nothing at all?" Sally knew that even the boy could hear the fear as she spoke. "Is there nothing you saw or heard that was strange to you?"

Thomas shook his head hesitantly, not wanting to disappoint Sally and make her angry. Instead of going into a rage the vampire actually bowed her head in defeat and then picked Thomas up by the waist. "Are we going back to the castle Ms. Sally?"

"I will make sure you are safely returned for Duo, but unfortunately my safety is not guaranteed."

----

It took every ounce of his willpower to restrain himself from wreaking havoc on the town, but he impatiently sat there waiting for Sally to return. The vampire was obviously taking her time as the sun had set hours ago, and she had yet to return. The vampire had attempted to distract himself by focusing on other issues, but there were none more important than Duo's disappearance. Finally he heard Sally entering the castle, but stopped at the top of the staircase when he saw no Duo.

No... The only other person he saw with Sally was that wretched boy...

"Where is he Sally? I thought you had understood my message loud and clear, but obviously that isn't the case. Duo's not hear which means you failed at your mission." Heero descended the staircase in a matter of seconds and was at the door before he stopped to look back. "Be wary Thomas... if I return without Duo you will be the first to die. After all, had you not shown up none of this would've happened."

He could see Thomas trembling and knew that the child probably wouldn't sleep tonight. After that last glance Heero took his leave out into the night air and wished it wasn't such a horrible occasion to be out on such a glorious night as this one.

Before he left Sally grabbed the vampire's shoulder with desperation in her eyes she pleaded with him. "Master Heero, I know Duo is your beloved, but you can not risk yourself like this. Without you the entire castle will collapse and all of us will be plagued with chaos until your return."

The woman obviously didn't realize just how much Duo meant to him... She also didn't realize that Heero hadn't killed her on the spot for the outburst because he knew Duo would hate him for it. "You've overstepped your boundary one too many times Sally, but luckily I will overlook it this last time. You must manage the castle in my absence and nobody is to leave my territory for _any_ reason."

He figured with such straightforward orders there would be no misunderstandings. Without any more interruptions the vampire took his leave and didn't even slow down as Sally called after him. There would be no one and nothing to stop him from finding Duo, even if it meant risking his own existence, as long as Duo was safely found and back in his arms.

As soon as he reached the outskirts of the forest, Heero discovered the same little area Sally had. Immediately he was able to see the signs of a struggle even though there was evidence of trying to cover it up. Examining every little thing out of place gave Heero no real hints other than this must've been where Duo fought. Obviously whoever this attacker was knew about Heero's castle being near here. That narrowed down the choices to strictly vampires.

Once that elimination was made it was pretty obvious who the person doing this was. It had to be the bloodling who'd threatened him the other day, and apparently the young vampire had discovered something precious to Heero. How he did it wasn't the issue of the moment, but all that mattered was trying to remember where the hell the bloodling had established his territory. There were so many bloodlings in this area that it would be hard figuring out which one is the one he is looking for.

The newest bloodling he was aware of goes by the name of... what is that stupid name? Apparently this bloodling wasn't very original and had decided to keep his human name unlike most vampires. Most vampires wanted to forget their pasts in hopes of making a better future, yet this bloodling hadn't. Which probably meant that this bloodling wasn't ready to let go of his humanity yet. There were several possible reasons as to why that was, but usually it was because the vampire wanted revenge of some sort. This kind of thing goes beyond merely tampering with prey or treading on another's territory, whatever this bloodling wanted was probably something Duo did instead of Heero.

Still, this didn't make Heero give the ignorant vampire any pity as he continued to map out all the territories in his mind. Apparently he'd have to resort to visiting an old friend and neighbor in order to figure out the identity of the bloodling.

Heero now made his next destination to be the castle of Gabriel and unfortunately the journey would take him the last few hours before dawn to reach his old colleague. "Gabriel... you'd better attend those meetings still."

Flitting was the fastest form of transportation for a vampire, but even as Heero forced himself to go speeds beyond normal it was not fast enough. His mind was screaming to have the familiarity of Duo's presence and to just have the half-vampire beside him once again.

----

The only thing Duo knew could be completely sure of is that Janus had a real grudge against him and Heero for absolutely ridiculous reasons. Maybe what Janus had told Duo wasn't the truth, but he seemed pretty convincing. So Duo didn't really doubt it.

Yet there was just something about the blank spot in his memory about where he knew Janus that seemed odd. Never before had Duo realized he had parts of his past he'd forgotten, but now it seemed like a lot of his life was trapped in a fog. Heero had never spoken of this before... so maybe this was just Duo's imagination? Or perhaps he was still recovering from whatever drugs Janus had given him.

Whatever it was it made him feel terrified. Just the thought of losing the memories of his life as a human... it made him feel like he was losing everything to his vampire side. Is that such a bad thing though? Most likely it wasn't as bad as Duo was thinking it would be, but he just wasn't capable of convincing himself of that.

Janus didn't give Duo much time to himself as the bloodling came back after only a couple of hours. He had a smug look that made Duo despise the vampire even more, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. All he could do was wait for the right moment to attack Janus.

"Feeling nostalgic Maxwell? Or are you going to pretend to be brave?"

"Why don't you stop hiding over there and come closer?" Duo countered as he gave a light tug to the restraints. All he wanted was answers, but that obviously wasn't going to happen without a bit of prying. "How do you know my name Janus?"

Janus took a few steps closer, but still kept a safe distance from Duo. He gave the half-vampire a scrutinizing look as if trying to take Duo apart with his eyes. Then a smirk slowly spread as he turned to his two huge servants expectantly. "You two feel free to play with this _hybrid_."

Duo didn't allow the fear he was feeling show on his face as the two men towered over him. "Always going to let others do the dirty work, aren't you Janus?"

When Duo said it, it must've triggered part of his memory as he suddenly heard Janus' voice in his head.

_'What happened to being blood brothers? When did it become possible to break that bond?!'_

One man had grabbed Duo's arm by the time the half-vampire snapped out of his daze. He watched as Janus gave one last look before disappearing around a corner, and that's when Duo knew things were about to get really uncomfortable. But what these men weren't expecting was that Duo wasn't about to take anything like this willingly.

As soon as the servants had let their guards down since they had finally started to get some of Duo's clothes off. The first guard was easy to take out as all it took was as simple twist of the neck until it cracked. The man must've thought Duo was just enjoying himself too much when he wrapped his arms around the huge vampire's neck, but that servant didn't suffer any as his neck was broken in only a few seconds.

The second guard couldn't seem to believe what had just happened to the other vampire, but didn't allow Duo to take him out so easily. When Duo attempted to give a swift kick to the head the huge servant grabbed his leg and threw him as far as the chains allowed before nearly ripping Duo's arms off as he came to a sudden halt. The half-vampire tried to recover quickly and put on a good show for the vampire who had began to get cocky.

"Not so brave, are we? I'll just break all the bones in your arms and legs so you won't get anymore stupid ideas." He bent down a little to try and grab Duo up off the ground, and that was his mistake.

Duo shot his arm straight in the vampire's face as he targeted the servant's eyes. He hit his mark as the huge man let out a bloodcurdling scream of pain and fury. As the vampire was now in a blind rage he lashed out randomly not realizing what Duo was planning. The half-vampire held up his chains as the man came closer trampling over his dead comrade.

Finally the vampire came close and lashed out catching one of Duo's chains. He didn't seem to realize what it was and instantly broke one of the links clean in half. Duo was now almost free, but the servant seemed to be calming down a little more by the second. So the half-vampire threw the other chain and mocked trying to hurt the huge vampire with it.

Luckily he still wasn't thinking clearly and took the bait. This time he just ended up ripping the links apart and gave Duo the freedom he'd been waiting for. Duo still had to wear the restraints around his wrists, but now he didn't have 30-feet of it trailing behind him. One arm had about six feet of chain while the other only had four.

"Thanks a lot! I feel so much better having my freedom back, so now I'm in a much better mood!" Duo knew he had the chance to escape now, but he felt that he owed his captor a little payback before he left. It appeared that Duo had only destroyed the vampire's left eye as he suddenly glared straight at Duo with his one eye.

It was actually a little comical to see the one-eyed vampire trying to intimidate Duo with a glare from only one eye. Yet the half-vampire didn't allow himself to become too distracted or underestimate the guy just because he'd lost one eye. All vampires had an unnaturally strong survival instinct which made Duo at a slight disadvantage at this point.

He was drained of quite a bit of his strength just from exhaustion and the drugs, but he knew if he screwed up now that would lose his only chance of fleeing this place. So he taunted the vampire hoping to get the idiot to make a bad move, but apparently he'd regained his wits. Which was making the situation look even worse for Duo.

Still nothing was going to stop him from getting out of here and going home. Not even if the entire world came crashing down on him! Duo made the first move bursting into a full sprint straight at the guy which didn't catch the big vampire off-guard. But when Duo dropped down into a slide to knock the servant's feet from under him. _That _caught the vampire by surprise and he fell straight to the ground. Duo did hesitate as he used the end of the chains still on his wrists to beat at the vampire's head and throat.

All the frustration Janus had caused Duo was being taken out on the poor vampire's head as when Duo finally stopped there was not trace of that ever looking even remotely like a human or vampire. Duo had to throw up in the corner before he felt like he was able to leave.

As he stepped out of the cave he found it to be the dead of night. He let out a relieved sigh as he began to survey his surroundings when he felt a presence behind him. "Damn... I thought I'd managed to get away without getting caught. But I guess not-"

Duo turned to come face-to-face with Heero, and he felt like crying. The half-vampire made sure not to though.

"What happened to you? Did that _bloodling_ have the guts to actually damage _you_?" Heero was inspecting every inch of Duo's exposed body, but the half-vampire felt his body beginning to scream at him. He didn't even know what the hell a bloodling was, but at the moment Duo didn't even care because all that mattered was he was safe now.

"Forget Janus and all of this... just please take me back to the castle... I need to be back with you and everyone else." Duo felt himself losing consciousness again and was glad he didn't have to make the journey alone. Apparently that fight had taken a lot more of his energy than he'd originally thought.

----

"I can't believe this is happening on top of everything else!" Sally was pacing beside the bed with Thomas lying in it. Hilde was feeding the child a homemade remedy she'd made in case any of their humans ever caught the plague. She was almost positive it would cure the illness up in a few days, but the child's fever just continued to grow. "Master Heero didn't care for the boy... but Duo... God he loved this child like a son and I allowed him to catch the Black Death!"

Hilde ushered the blonde vampire out of the room and tried to quiet her as Thomas was falling into a fitful sleep. Once the chef had led Sally away from the room and sat her down Hilde went to fetch something for her to drink. Hilde came back with two wine glasses with blood and handed one to Sally before sitting down.

"There's nothing you could've done Sally... they say the Black Death is air-borne and there's not way to stop it." Hilde rested her hand on Sally's leg while the two tried to ignore the tension in the air. "Duo will not hate you for something that you could not prevent... Thomas is human and they are prone to catch illnesses."

Sally suddenly looked up at the chef when she had an idea of possibly saving the boy.

Quatre didn't encounter any obstacles when clearing the wall around the town, but now he had to worry about the police on patrol on the road to the next town. Obviously they would be suspicious of Quatre leaving a supposedly sealed in town at midnight, but the blonde had to get there before dawn.

He made sure his timing was flawless as he crept right out from under the police officers' noses and Quatre had to make sure not to get too caught up in his victory. After walking about a mile away from the town and not seeing a trace of any humans Quatre decided it was safe to flit the rest of the way to the next town. Hopefully they wouldn't be on guard as well, because the blonde didn't feel like scaling anymore walls tonight.

Just as he was about to flit he heard voices coming down the road towards him, and the blonde vampire had to hide in the forest. At first Quatre thought the voices were familiar, but then he just shrugged the thought off. Nobody he knew would be this far from his hometown, but as he watched the people turn the corner he was shocked to see someone he did recognize.

It wasn't just anybody either... it was _Trowa_!

----

Quatre restrained himself from jumping out and startling the two men. Obviously they were still vampire hunters even though they no longer were as notorious as before. After the incident with Duo and Heero, the blonde vampire knew that anyone would stay away from them. Those two didn't take well to outside meddling at all, but Quatre hated that it had driven Trowa away from him just because of those two.

He was trying hard to think of what he could do now that he'd finally found Trowa... It was almost dawn and the two hunters were heading straight for the town Quatre had just escaped from.

"Guess I have no choice but to follow them back... I'll just wait until the distract all of the patrollers and then get back inside the town's walls." The blonde sighed as he knew this was a lot more trouble than he'd even expected when setting out to search for Trowa.

----

**Happy New Year to all of you awesome readers! I was hoping to post this earlier in the week, but I kept getting distracted. So here is the next chapter to _Vampire Love Child_. **

**As always, I'd love to hear what you guys have to say, so please...**

**Read & Review!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	11. Chapter 11

"How did you find me? We're in the middle of nowhere..." Duo and Heero had left Janus' area only a few hundred yards away, but it still felt better to Duo. He was leaning against a fallen tree trunk as he sat on the ground. The fresh air felt wonderful on his face compared to the musty feeling of the area he had been in for the past day. "Do you have some magical powers to just find me anywhere?"

Duo had just been joking about the last part, but Heero just seemed confused by what he meant. "My friend actually helped me find the bloodling's territory since he's one of the newer members of the vampire communities. Was this the same bloodling who intruded in the castle?"

Still having no idea what the word bloodling meant Duo just nodded his head. He just really wanted to get home instead of remaining so close now that his head was beginning to clear. Yet Heero just seemed to want revenge on Janus, and nothing Duo could say would convince him otherwise. The half-vampire honestly didn't feel the need to be avenged, especially since he still had the feeling Janus wasn't entirely bad.

"I should punish him for daring to come to my territory and try to steal away my partner. He just doesn't seem to have any idea what he's gotten himself into with this. This bloodling could start a territory war if he doesn't tread more carefully." Heero went over to Duo and sat beside him. The vampire had already checked any injuries Duo had, but so far there wasn't anything alarmingly bad. "We'll never make it all the way back to our castle before dawn. Gabriel's castle is the closest ally I have near here, and it's only about and hour away."

"That's fine Heero... whoever is an ally of yours is an ally of mine. But before we leave will you explain what a bloodling is?" Duo leaned against Heero to make sure this wasn't just some crazy dream he was having. Then again, if it was all a dream maybe he'd wake up safe and sound in the castle by Heero.

"A bloodling is simply a vampire that just made the transition from human to vampire. They are considered the lowest of our kind just because they lack experience and instincts of a true vampire. In a way, you can compare them to human children, but not as innocent and never usually that young."

Finally, an explanation made Duo feel better as he used the tree to help him stand up. He held a hand out to Heero and helped the vampire up. The two of them stood alone in the middle of Janus' territory with only a few hours before the sun would rise. Apparently Janus wasn't about to make any surprise appearances, according to Heero, so the two of them decided on just flitting the entire way to Gabriel's castle.

One final glance over his shoulder at the place he'd been held captive was enough to make Duo never want to come near this place ever again.

Traveling with Heero was actually a lot more fun than the half-vampire would've expected, but he suspected Heero was just trying to cheer him up. Constantly the two tried to get ahead of each other while making sure not to make a bad step and fall or hit any trees. This helped pass the time since the two of them were so concentrated on each other and their little race the hour passed quickly, and the almost ended up passing Gabriel's castle on the way.

Heero was lucky enough to realize they were nearby and the two of them slowed to a stop. Sure enough Duo was able to see the castle looming only about fifty yards from where they stood.

"Gabriel is expecting us to return, but you still be cautious around him. He's not always in the mood to be a pleasant host especially with all the issues he's been having lately." Heero warned him as the approached the castle, and even though Duo wanted to ask about this _issues_ he didn't. There were two bulky servants guarding the entrance to the castle, but Heero took care of it.

The castle was much more decorated than Heero's and it almost looked like what Duo had pictured as the home of royalty. "I never knew there were such materialistic vampires..."

Heero glared at Duo when he said that, so the half-vampire immediately shut up. There was a servant that guided them through a few corridors and then stopped a room opening the door for the two of them. "Master Gabriel will not be returning until tomorrow evening, so he implores the two of you to make yourselves comfortable until then. If you need anything we will be waiting nearby."

Duo went straight for the bed and fell onto it face first. Even thought the bed wasn't nearly as comfortable as the one back at the castle he still preferred it over the cold stone floor he had been lying on. Heero had sat down on the other side of the bed but didn't say much to Duo. The vampire seemed just as exhausted as Duo felt, so the two of them didn't hesitate to get ready for some rest.

Curling up in Heero's arms made Duo want to burst with the feelings of joy welling inside him. For some reason he'd gotten the impression he might never have gotten a chance like this with Heero again, but obviously he'd been wrong. And he was glad too.

"That bloodling isn't going to get away with this unscathed Duo, but I'm going to let the other vampires deal with him. I don't want to be separated from you like that again, even if for a day." Heero kissed the half-vampire's forehead before he began to drift off to sleep. Duo followed his example, and within minutes the two of them were in a deep sleep.

----

Hilde looked over at Sally with shock, but she knew that most likely it would be the only choice they had. No human had survived after getting the plague, so they couldn't wait and hope for Thomas to be different. Yet this was such a drastic decision she didn't feel it was fair not to ask Thomas if he wanted this.

"At least bring it up to the child... this isn't some minor little change in his life. Becoming a vampire is a huge transition from being a human!" Hilde continued trying to convince the blonde vampire to reconsider just doing it when Thomas was asleep. It wasn't fair to force him to take another life without consent from the child. "Maybe we should wait for Master Heero and Duo to return. Duo should be here when all of this happens."

Sally stopped pacing and looked over at Hilde who was leaning against the stone wall of the corridor. "You don't understand. We have no idea how fast this will spread and if we wait too long his body will begin to decompose. Besides Duo will only hate me for allowing him to die without even trying to save him."

Hilde let out an exasperated sigh as she watched Sally resume her nervous pacing back and forth in front of Thomas' room. She knew as well as Sally that Duo would never hate her for something like this, because it's obvious they attempted Hilde's remedies. None of them had any effect on Thomas, but it was anticipating the plague if they turned him into a vampire now.

Thomas had only been infected for a little while, and there was only one symptom truly showing. He had a red mark on his body under his arm, but other than that he seemed alright. Amazingly his fever wasn't very high, and the boy had only complained of some chills once. Right now he was sleeping peacefully, and it disturbed Hilde that the two of them were speaking of transforming him into a vampire while he was quietly dreaming.

For a while neither of them spoke, both trying to think of some other options they had, but it all came back to that two choices. The first was to just let nature take its course and to allow Thomas to die. The second was to turn Thomas into a vampire and curse him to an eternity as this with the chance he may end up a savage beast without his partner. Sally saw this as a risk they were willing to take because he had quite a while to seek out this partner, but only a matter of days to survive in this state.

Nothing anyone said could convince Hilde to the point she was absolutely sure she was doing the right thing. There was always some doubt in the back of her mind that refused to just let her go through with it. Some choices just weren't supposed to be made by another person.

"Fine, I give up, we have to do this to save Thomas." Hilde stood up straight and Sally looked at her with a relieved smile. Or perhaps it was a smile that was just showing she'd known she'd get her way all along. "_But_ I want to allow Thomas to make the final decision of whether or not he wants this."

That made Sally's look of relief turn into a look of anger and indignation. "Why do you seem so reluctant to help him?"

"Why do you seem so eager to bite him, Sally? Do you crave fresh blood so much you'll find any excuse to get it?" Hilde yelled back and the silence that came from Sally answered her question. "I knew something had to be motivating you to do this. It's obvious from the way you act around the child you can't stand him!"

Sally did something unexpected and just closed her eyes while Hilde yelled at her. The vampire waited until Hilde was done before she looked back at the chef. "You honestly believe I just want some human blood? Is it so hard for you to picture me genuinely caring about someone's life? Maybe I don't particularly care for Thomas, but I don't like children much anyway."

Her words made Hilde's anger die away, and immediately she regretted what she'd said to Sally. Yet neither of them spoke for quite a while after that small quarrel. They remained outside Thomas' room for what seemed like hours when suddenly the silence was interrupted by a loud scream. Sally was the first into the room and at Thomas' side.

Apparently whatever was making him scream was just in his dreams as Thomas remained asleep. Hilde put a hand on the child's forehead to see how his fever was, and it was frightening how hot his skin was against her cool hand. Obviously this was a sign that there wasn't that much time left before the fever would become deadly. Hilde gave Thomas' shoulder a small shake to wake the boy up from his nightmare, but it took a while to make Thomas fully awake.

"Miss Hilde... what's going on? Why is it so cold in here?" He was getting chills again, so Sally ran to fetch another blanket.

"Listen carefully to me Thomas... we need you to make a very big decision. I know you're not really in the mood to do this, but it's critical that you decide now." Hilde hesitated as she looked at the helpless body of a dying child. Why did this have to happen to someone so innocent and pure? "You're body isn't able to handle this kind of strain for much longer... so you need to decide whether you want to become a vampire or not."

Thomas looked at Hilde for a moment and she could already see the answer in his eyes.

----

Calming his irritation at having to repeat the difficult task was what was screwing Quatre up. Already he'd missed two chances he had at scaling the town's walls, but missed them because he'd been so angry about having to do this again. That wasn't the real reason, but he just wouldn't admit the true cause of his distraction was Trowa. The vampire loved Trowa, no doubt about it, but he wasn't going to let anyone know just how obsessed he was with Trowa.

They'd never spoken before, not for long, so he knew he shouldn't be this crazy about the vampire hunter. Another reason was Trowa is a vampire _hunter_ and Quatre is a _vampire_. So obviously the two of them weren't exactly supposed to get together according to fate, but Quatre didn't want to allow fate to cheat him out of this once in a lifetime chance at love. Trowa might actually turn out to be the partner for Quatre like Duo is for Heero.

Again this was something Quatre wouldn't admit to wanting because it just showed his weakness for Trowa.

The two hunters had been stopped at the town's gates by the patrolling officers who didn't believe their story no matter how hard they tried to convince the man. Quatre actually found it to be funny how earnestly the two men tried to tell the stubborn officer they had a job to do and he was ruining it. What a surprise that police officer would have when he found out they weren't lying.

Yet the blonde knew that this might be his last opportunity to sneak into the town, so he stopped watching Trowa and the other hunter to turn his attention to the wall. He started at a fast sprint, but not fast enough to flit. In one effortless movement Quatre jumped and then used the tree's long branch to swing him up to the top of the wall. Luckily he'd been quiet enough that nobody had heard him, and he was pretty much free to get away. That was until he heard a shout from the ground.

"Who's that up there?" Quatre was careful to conceal himself in the shadow as the officer waved his useless stick at him. "It must be the murderer! He must be a _monster_!"

The officer began to blow his whistle and apparently the men who'd kept the doors closed started to open them for the man. Quatre could see Trowa trying to make out some distinct features of him, but the blonde wasn't about to get caught. He turned and began running along the top of the wall away from the crowd. It was so narrow Quatre knew that any normal person would've fallen off immediately, but thankfully he had better balance as a vampire.

He leapt off of the wall and onto the rooftop of someone's home, and jumped onto another person's home in the same manner. Once he was sure he was far enough from all of them he took a minute to rest. Nobody would be able to see him up on this roof anyway, but Quatre wanted to go back to the inn where he would be safe. Already there were hints of sunrise on the eastern horizon, and there was no way he would be able to avoid sunlight the entire day outside.

Luckily he was only a couple of streets away from the inn and it would only take a couple more minutes to reach it. As he stood up and brushed himself off, Quatre was suddenly confronted with the silhouette of another person on the rooftop beside him. The blonde was able to tell that it was Trowa's partner... Wufei or something, whatever his name was he was too close to discovering him.

Quatre risked himself by carefully climbing down the side of the house while Wufei continued scouting from the rooftops. His human eyes wouldn't be able to see Quatre down in the dark alleys below, so Quatre took a huge risk by sneaking along on the ground. The inn was so close that the blonde vampire knew he'd messed up by resting, and now he was seriously regretting that.

"Stop right there." Trowa's voice was so familiar and it made Quatre want to melt when he heard it. But the tone of his voice showed he obviously meant business. That also meant he still believed Quatre was the murderer the police officer had claimed he was. "You've done enough killing and you will never kill again."

He allowed Trowa to believe he'd caught Quatre and was going to hand him over to the police. Of course Quatre knew he had murdered that young woman, but it had been completely by accident. It had never been his intention to kill her, but he couldn't always control his instincts and cravings for blood.

Once Quatre was sure Trowa was close enough he turned around and jammed his elbow straight into Trowa's stomach. This knocked the wind out of the vampire hunter and Quatre used the moment to flit the two blocks he'd needed to go for the inn. He stopped at the inn door and quickly hurried inside. Quatre didn't allow the door to slam, and when the innkeeper gave him a weird look he just smiled.

"It's a bit chilly outside," His excuse was lame, but the innkeeper just laughed loudly in agreement.

"You're right lad, but winter is coming so we should expect it." The man pushed the book in front of Quatre and turned to grab a key for a room. "You can have an upstairs room, and make sure you bundle up for winter."

Quatre thanked the man and paid him in advance for three nights even though he wasn't sure how long he'd be staying. He looked out the window and saw the sun was slowly rising, and then the vampire pulled curtains shut so there was no light in the room. Letting out a huge sigh of relief he fell onto the bed and found himself regretting being so careless.

Exhaustion was trying to claim him, but the restlessness of his mind wasn't allowing him to fall asleep. He'd had nights like this when he couldn't sleep for hours, but Quatre knew this wasn't the time to allow this. He honestly needed as much sleep as possible so he'd be in top condition when it came to making his strategy to talk to Trowa privately. It was pretty obvious he and Wufei weren't just ordinary friends, but Quatre couldn't be sure which of them wanted the relationship.

Still there was the chance that none of the people were able to really see him since it was so dark, and he wasn't allowing them much time to see. Still he decided to ditch the clothes he'd worn for so long and put on another outfit that was much more innocent and inconspicuous. So he would probably blend in a lot better with the townspeople instead of sticking out like a sore thumb.

Before it hadn't been such an issue since he was just a newcomer in the town, but he had no reputation or bounty on his head. Now things had gotten so complicated all because he'd allowed his vampire instincts to overtake him...

Quatre demanded that his mind ceased its wondering and pondering so he'd be allowed some rest, but it disobeyed him. Instead it wandered over into private territory where Quatre kept all his thoughts about Trowa. Such as, even though Trowa was attempting to catch him he was still very attractive in the process.

There was a knock on the door, and Quatre was out of bed in an instant and by the door. "Who is it?"

"Just the innkeeper, lad! I wanted to bring you some extra blankets since you looked so chilly before!" With a sigh of relief the vampire opened the door and allowed the hearty man in the room. The innkeeper had about three extra blankets and on top of it was a vial of revolting looking medicine. "Just be warned lad, the outbreaks of the Black Death are increasing in this area as we speak. The doctor said this would defend you from the disease, and cure any other illness."

The last part made Quatre hesitate for a moment and he looked directly at the innkeeper. "Why would you give me this? I'm not ill, and I won't be here long enough to catch the plague."

"Lad, you just look a bit pale to me so I want to be sure. When my wife looked that pale she had already caught the Black Death and hadn't told me. Infected my children and brother..." The man's kind eyes had a shadow in them for a moment and Quatre wondered what it was. Hatred for his wife? Or was it regret that she was dead along with the rest of his family? "Just take care, and don't suffer like my family did."

When the innkeeper left the room Quatre found himself surprised the man hadn't kicked him out if he suspected him to be infected with the Black Death. Perhaps he feared he no longer had anything to lose now that he'd lost his family and probably a lot of himself as well with their deaths.

"Thank you..."

Quatre wished he'd told that to the innkeeper directly instead of being too scared.

----

**Good morning readers! Another chapter out for you guys, but as some of you have been guessing there aren't going to be many more chapters. I can't give an exact number, because I'm not quite sure how many there will be. But I am wrapping up this story and depending on how well that goes this may turn into a trilogy! Don't get your hopes up yet though, but I'm considering it.**

**Anyways, tell me what you thought about this chapter the good, the bad, and all the rest!**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	12. Chapter 12

Hilde felt her hands trembling as the full realization of what she'd done really hit her. She had just taken a child's life and turned him into a vampire... but what choice had she really had? It was either allow the child to suffer and die of the Black Death or at least give him another chance at life as a vampire. Whether she wanted to admit it or not Hilde knew that she hadn't wanted Thomas to die, and she knew Duo wouldn't have wanted it either.

_That's_ why she had done it... Sally had tried everything to keep her from feeling all the guilt. Yet there wasn't anything the blonde vampire could do that would truly comfort Hilde until Duo and Heero arrived back at the castle and she could tell them. Yet Sally wasn't so quick to give up on trying to improve Hilde's mood. She'd realized this was also her chance to tell the chef exactly what she'd been wanting to for so long. Perhaps it was bad timing considering what was happening with Thomas and everyone else in the castle... but this would probably be the last opportunity she'd ever get.

Both vampires waited impatiently by Thomas' bedside as he began to recover and they could see Thomas' body slowly getting used to his transformation. Already he looked a lot paler than before, but at least the two of them were able to see that everything was going smoothly. If anything were going wrong they'd have been able to tell if his lips began to turn slightly blue or show any other signs of death. For such a young human to be turned into a vampire it would take nearly two days for him to finally regain consciousness meaning that he'd fully recovered. Adults or young adults typically only required about a day or less to recover which was why they never needed such long periods of rest. Children on the other hand, their entire body was being strengthened which took much longer since they hadn't fully developed.

"Hilde," Sally took the vampire by the arm and began to slowly lead her out of the room where they could talk. Once she'd closed the door to Thomas' room Sally began to lead Hilde away, and the first servant she spotted she told them to wait by the child's room in case he woke up. "You haven't had any sleep in almost a day, and no nourishment at all. Let me get you something so you can at least look alright when he wakes up."

While Sally found some of the blood being saved for meals and something to serve it in to Hilde she tried to form a plan. She could either just come right out with it or accept whatever Hilde's response is, she could just forget about it all together, or she could just continue to drop subtle hints that Hilde would probably never pick up on. As she finally discovered where there were some bowls, Sally just grabbed one and poured the blood into it knowing it wouldn't matter all that much to Hilde anyway.

As she came back out she could see Hilde having an internal struggle of not knowing whether to regret her decision or accept it as the last resort. Sally already knew Duo wouldn't be mad at Hilde for what she did to save Thomas. The difficult part was just getting Hilde to realize this, but Sally knew she would just have to keep trying until she succeeded.

Handing the bowl over to Hilde, she gratefully began to sip at the crimson liquid, but didn't really seem in the mood for it. Instead Sally tried to think of some way to distract her from this whole situation in hopes that she may start to go back to her optimistic self.

"So Hilde... how long have you been here at the castle working for Master Heero?"

The question seemed to snap Hilde out of her trance as she stared at the floor thoughtfully trying to count the years. Sally was patient in waiting as Hilde thought about her answer, but Hilde could see the relief when she finally answered. "It's been about sixty years or so... before that I lived in the town at the base of the mountain. Master Heero actually saved me back then. My life was a living hell with no husband and no real life to look forward to. Master Heero showed up one day and offered me another life that I could start over, and I took it, of course."

Listening attentively Sally had no intention of interrupting Hilde's story, but the woman stopped and didn't seem to want to start the conversation back up. Sally wasn't quite ready to drop the conversation yet, so she thought of another question she'd been dying to ask. "So how long have you been alone? Have you ever tried looking for your own partner?"

"No, you know servants aren't really permitted to look for partners. We're a lower status than a vampire like you, so vampires like Master Heero don't usually encourage us to search. If we did then head vampires wouldn't have servants to serve them like this, and too many vampires would live for much too long." Hilde set the bowl down on a small table beside her and then looked up at Sally. "It's the balance of vampires. Servants, such as I, have a much shorter lifespan because we're usually killed before we turn into beasts. While head vampires live out their lives for eternity until they are killed."

Sally suddenly grabbed Hilde's hand and held it firmly while the other vampire stared at her confused. The blonde vampire wasn't about to let this chance go without a fight. "Master Heero would understand if you wanted a partner Hilde. He has more respect for his servants than those other vampires do and would allow it without any objection. So will you... will you become _my_ partner?"

A tense silence fell upon the room as neither of the women spoke and nobody else was around. It seemed like ages that the two of them just looked at each other, Sally with determination and Hilde looked dazed. Finally the silence was broken as a servant bustled into the room and pointed a finger towards the direction on the room Thomas was resting. Both vampires jumped out of the seats and ran towards the room fearing the worst.

Bursting into the room they saw Thomas sitting up in bed turning his over and staring at them curiously. He looked up from his hands and smiled peacefully at them before his childlike attitude came back and he bounded out of bed to hug the two women. They looked down at the child in wonder at his impossibly quick recovery, and Sally could see Hilde smiling while tears started to come.

"Sally... I would _love_ to be your partner."

----

Waking up Duo realized that it was still light outside, but the sun was setting so it would only be a little while longer before the sun was gone. It suddenly hit him as the half-vampire sat up in the bed and Duo realized that Heero wasn't there anymore. As he got out of bed, Duo didn't feel any panic about Heero being gone, but he just felt uncomfortable being on his own in this strange place. He walked to the door and hesitated as he wondered if it would be better to stay or try to find Heero.

Eventually Duo decided on searching for Heero and getting the chance to clear his head from everything happened over the last couple of days. As he walked down the hall he realized that Gabriel wasn't materialistic as he had previously thought, but in fact the vampire was just honoring what appeared to be his ancestors. All of them people in the portraits had very distinct blonde hair that almost looked silver and their fierce green eyes gave them a very unique look. The atmosphere of the castle was very relaxed and peaceful which made Duo feel a little more comfortable as he wandered the corridors.

After a while of examining all the portraits Duo ended up in what appeared to be the entrance hall of the castle, and there at the bottom of the large staircase was Heero and who Duo believed is Gabriel. The vampire towered over Heero and his hair was dark and slicked back, and it reminded him of all the stories he'd heard as a child in town. He was even paler than Heero was and that started to make Duo wonder exactly how old Gabriel is. The two were speaking in hushed tones, and Heero looked furious about whatever Gabriel was saying so Duo wanted to know what was going on.

Both vampires shut up as Duo started down the stairs, and Heero refused to look over at Duo. Gabriel looked up at the half-vampire and Duo almost stopped as he looked into the vampire's crimson eyes. Those eyes looked so malevolent, and it made Duo reluctant to go any closer to the two of them. Most likely the fear was coming from whatever part of him was still human, but his vampire side was just wary of this new person. As he reached to bottom of the stairs he took his place beside Heero, and Gabriel just turned and walked away from the two of them.

Once Gabriel had completely disappeared from sight Duo turned to his partner with questioning eyes. "What's going on Heero? Did something happen?"

"It's nothing you should be concerned with Duo... My carelessness allowed that bloodling to escape last night. I should've stayed and killed him right there, but I didn't want you to remain there for another second." Heero tried to hide the confusion of whether to be guilty or be happy with the decision he'd made. "Tonight we must return to the castle. Gabriel is not happy about my bringing you here as only a half-vampire. Be ready soon."

Duo just gave a solemn nod to let Heero know he understood, but when he thought Heero was going to leave him the vampire didn't move an inch. The half-vampire then guessed that Heero was just waiting for him to leave first, so he turned and walked back towards the staircase but stopped as he realized Heero was following him. "Heero, you don't need to feel guilty about all of this, because it's my fault. If I had just allowed you to turn me into a vampire in the first place then I wouldn't have caused all this trouble. So you don't have to follow me around if you have things to do."

Heero didn't say a word, but apparently he decided to defy Duo's wish. The two of them just walked around the castle together wasting the last little time they had to wait for the sun to disappear. Finally Duo was able to watch the last bit of the sun sink beyond the horizon and Heero turned as his sign that they needed to leave _now_.

When they stepped out into the fresh night air Duo felt rejuvenated, and he felt ready to finish the race he had with Heero last night. But he could tell Heero wasn't in such a great mood, so he decided to try and make him smile at least once before they arrived at the castle. The two of them took no longer than a few seconds to be at their full speed, and heading directly towards the castle they loved to call home. When Heero refused to speak with Duo, the half-vampire decided to just go ahead and start the race himself. He waited until an opportune moment and pushed Heero just a bit so that he tripped over the root of a tree and came to a skidding halt.

"Sorry Heero," was the only thing Duo called back as he sped ahead of his partner knowing that he either just made a huge mistake or did the right thing. As he heard Heero quickly approaching behind him he just hoped he'd made the right decision. Once Heero was right beside Duo, the vampire looked over with a smile that said the competition was back on between the two of them.

Duo tried to keep up with Heero, but not he realized how one-sided this was. The previous night Heero had been slowing himself down just to give Duo a small chance of beating him. That almost made Duo stop as the realization finally dawned on him of how much stronger, faster, and just _better_ Heero was than him. The whole reason Heero probably wanted to make Duo a vampire was because of how restraint he must've used all the time around Duo. One thing Duo hated more than anything else is knowing people treat him as being weaker, and finally he knew he was ready to make peace with his life as a human.

No longer would he force Heero to be restrained.

----

His rest had been undisturbed, and he woke up without suspecting a thing and let his guard down. That was Quatre's big mistake. As he gathered his things just in case he needed to leave in a hurry he suddenly realized that someone was waiting for him outside of the door. The blonde vampire continued to pack his things and tried not to alert the stranger beyond the door that he was awake now. Obviously it didn't work though as the door creaked open and in came in the innkeeper much to Quatre's relief. Quatre smiled to show he wasn't angered by the intrusion even though he was a bit perturbed by it.

"Good evening lad! You slept right through the entire day! I gotta tell ya, I miss the days when I could do that..." He smiled nostalgically and apparently got lost in thought for a moment before Quatre cleared his throat and brought the man back down to earth. Blinking a couple times as if it would help him snap out of the trance the innkeeper then spread a huge grin across his face. "That reminds me lad, you have a visitor. He's been waiting for you since about noon for you to wake up. Has the patience of a saint!"

As if that was his cue to enter the last person Quatre wanted to be there came into the tiny room. The innkeeper bowed out and shut the door behind himself which just served to trap Quatre even though he knew it was just to give them privacy. Obviously he had been so stupid not thinking Trowa wouldn't recognize him... it was just too hopeful to believe the dark had made him less oriented last night. The two stood in silence as Trowa just seemed to glance around the room with slight curiosity which was just a way to avoid looking directly at him.

Neither spoke at first, but finally Trowa stopped averting his eyes and looked directly at Quatre. Even without saying a word the intensity in Trowa's eyes was enough to make Quatre look away ashamed knowing the truth was in plain sight. Anybody would know he was the murderer since it had all the signs of a vampire, and Quatre was the only vampire in this tiny little town at the moment. "Last night was a foolish thing for you to do Quatre... Wufei didn't remember you though, so you're lucky."

"Listen Trowa, I can explain everything... about the girl I mean. What happened to her was a complete accident, and it was actually the first time I'd ever bitten an actual human before. I hadn't expected my thirst to be so incredible, but I know it's no excuse." Quatre's jade eyes refused to look up as Trowa approached him, and he was preparing for the worst. Well, the worst that could happen is Trowa could pull those curtains back to reveal the burning setting sun. Or he could perhaps just behead him right there... "At least give me the mercy of making it quick..."

The sound of the slap seemed to echo in the room, but Quatre suspected that was just his minds playing tricks on him. "For a supposedly educated vampire you sure can be blind. I'm not going to kill you for something you couldn't control, but you're not going to go without some form of punishment."

Quatre was struck speechless as he watched Trowa about to leave he finally found his voice. "Trowa wait! There's something I have to speak to you about. It's urgent so please don't leave yet!"

The vampire hunter stopped and Quatre knew that this was his one chance to at least tell Trowa of his feelings. "I know the two of us aren't _close_, per se, but there's some kind of connection I feel with you that I can't ignore. Ever since we met over a year ago you've been the only thing I've thought about, and I know that you are the only person who could ever make me truly happy. So I want to know if you would... accept my offer to become a vampire to be with me?"

Not even a flicker of astonishment or any other emotion showed on Trowa's face as he looked directly at the blonde vampire. "Quatre, I don't want to give you an answer yet, because I'm too attached for my humanity. You've given me the option of deciding, but this is too big for me to make without thinking it over... Besides, don't you think you should choose someone who isn't in the profession that hunts down your kind?"

Somehow this was a totally different scenario than Quatre had been imagining in his head. Maybe he was too hopeful that he would have a fairy tale ending and live happily ever after with Trowa. He really just wanted to go destroy himself right then, because he felt the pain of living alone would be too great a burden for him to handle. Trowa seemed to read his mind and hesitantly placed a hand comfortingly on Quatre's head.

Without actually intending to Quatre leaned closer and laid his head on the taller man's chest. This took all thoughts of killing himself out of his mind, and he realized he was being so selfish asking Trowa to do this just for him. Obviously he had his own life, and Quatre could understand his reluctance to lose everything in his human life to become a vampire. Better than anyone else Quatre knew he should understand this, but now he also kind of understood Heero better.

How long had Heero been suffering like this?

"If you really want to prove to me that this isn't just some temporary infatuation... wait for one more year. After that time I will come to Heero's castle or find you wherever you are and you're still waiting for me I would gladly join you. But there's always the chance you might discover a better person than me for you."

Quatre didn't know if he could last that long, but for Trowa he knew he would try.

----

**So as most of you can tell this series is coming to an end, and hopefully a satisfactory one. I know some readers are a little tired of me dragging this out, and I understand. So I'm wrapping this up probably with just one or two more chapters. Hopefully I haven't annoyed too many readers with all this drama, etc., etc. and so that's why I'm feeling this is a good time to end the series.**

**Hope everyone enjoyed.**

**Please R & R!**

**Shari Maxwell**


	13. Chapter 13

Thomas blinked his eyes wearily as he tried to remember why he was in bed and why he felt so different and strange. He did remember feeling a lot of pain the last time he'd woken up when Ms. Hilde had... had asked him if he wanted to become a vampire or die from the Black Death. The orphan knew he'd answered her with a yes or else he obviously wouldn't still be alive, or rather _undead_ as he was now. Sitting alone in the room he felt very calm about realizing he was now a vampire, and would live forever just like Duo and everyone else in the castle.

Yet he didn't have a long time alone to ponder exactly what it meant as Hilde and Sally entered the room looking immensely relieved. Hilde was the first to hug him and give him a quick kiss on the forehead while Sally just smiled to show that she felt just as glad as Hilde though she still wasn't prone to showing it physically. No one spoke until Thomas finally broke the tense silence between the three of them.

"So does this mean I'll be a child forever?" He looked from Sally to Hilde and was comforted when the two of them shook their heads.

"Unfortunately your aging process is slowed so you'll only age one year every five years, and once you hit a certain age it'll slow down altogether. That age is different for every vampire, so I can't say when but I can give you an approximation. Most likely you'll be between nineteen and twenty-five, but no older." The blonde vampire moved some of Thomas' hair from the boy's eyes. "We're just relieved that everything went smoothly for you... and we wanted to tell you Master Heero and Duo have told us they'll be here by morning."

For a few more minutes the three of them sat in silence as everything sunk in. Then Thomas threw the comforter and blankets that were piled on him away and was amazed at how easy it had been. Obviously this new vampire body would take some time to be used to since overnight his body had perfected itself with incredible strength. Hilde and Sally observed as he got out of bed and it almost seemed like he was taking his first steps all over again. After all he was now a bloodling, and that was almost the equivalent of a human newborn except that they were slightly more mature.

"It will take you a few months before you'll be able to control yourself, so don't worry if things seem harder to do at first." Hilde reassured Thomas as she watched and held Sally's hand without realizing it. When she saw Thomas notice the gesture she dropped Sally's hand automatically, but the blonde vampire grabbed it once again.

"Everything will be fully explained to you when your older Thomas... about partners and such things you're nowhere near ready for." Sally explained coolly while Hilde tried not to show her blush.

Thomas nodded and just accepted them to be like Duo and Heero. Even as a vampire he still had the mind of a child, but within a few years that would soon change. As he took a few cautious steps around the room he found himself to be a little more graceful than he had been previously which was kind of nice. At least when he was around Julia he wouldn't have to worry about being a klutz.

"Will I still be able to go to school and see Julia?" Thomas asked innocently, and didn't notice the exchanged look of reluctance between the two vampires.

"Thomas, you won't be able to see any of the townspeople ever again... we'll explain to you later, for now just relax and don't worry about any of that." Hilde knew the boy wasn't satisfied with the answer she'd given him, and he obviously wasn't ready to drop the subject. So she beat him to the punch, to put it bluntly. "Honestly Thomas, as a vampire you can't go out in sunlight and humans aren't fond of our kind at all. They consider us evil beings with only the intention of draining their blood, which unfortunately is true of some vampires, but in order to protect ourselves we must hide away from them. It's the only way we'll be safe and so we won't have to cause any meaningless bloodshed of humans."

Silence was the only answer from Thomas as he decided to just wait a little while and maybe they'd change their minds later. Adults did that a lot. Before anyone could speak another word the front doors of the castle opened and echoed throughout the castle. Hilde and Sally were gone in the blink of an eye, and Thomas realized what this meant.

Duo was finally home.

----

The two of them looked drained of all their energy, but they both greeted everyone waiting for them. Sally immediately offered her help to Heero, but he declined as he decided to announce what Duo had told them while they were gone. "He has found conclusion to his life as a human, and has chosen the life of a full vampire beside me."

Obviously Heero was bursting with joy, but unlike most he wasn't one to act giddy and show his emotions so openly. Yet the way he spoke and the genuine smile were both clues to show he was in total bliss in his own aloof way. Duo had his own shy smile showing everything Heero had said was true, but Sally and Hilde couldn't share the approving nods and murmurs the rest of the servants were telling them. Both of them noticed the silence from Hilde and Sally, but waited to get them alone before speaking about it.

Before anything else could happen Duo looked up at the top of the staircase and spotted Thomas with a huge grin. At first nothing looked different about the orphan he'd seen only a few days before, but as Thomas ran towards him at an inhuman speed Duo realized something was _very_ different. Nonetheless he embraced the boy without any hesitation, but gave Heero a worried glance as Heero probably noticed it before Thomas had even gotten to the staircase.

"Duo I was so worried you wouldn't come back..." Thomas was crying, so Duo didn't say anything, but effortlessly picked up the child and carried him away. Stroking Thomas' head to soothe him, Duo decided to just carry him away from the crowd around Heero before setting him down.

"Thomas, I'm so glad to see you! But... I need to speak with Hilde and Sally for a quick moment, so you just go ahead and rest up for later!" Duo ruffled the orphan's hair before he took off, and then Duo turned back to face his partner and two extremely guilty looking vampires. As he approached them he asked nonchalantly, "Where should we talk about this new situation?"

Heero turned away and walked toward the library upstairs and the three vampires followed behind him. Duo noticed Hilde and Sally being unusually close and he realized a lot had happened in only the few days he'd been gone. It was amazing how many things changed when you weren't around. As they entered the library, Duo closed the door behind the four of them and Hilde and Sally were now trapped for interrogation.

Heero immediately gave them a scrutinizing look, but Duo could see some signs of approval. It was obvious that he was happier with Thomas being a vampire so now he wouldn't have to treat the kid so gently. But Duo wasn't happy at all.

"What did you do to him while we were gone? He had his _whole life_ ahead of him and now he has to be a vampire for eternity! Thomas never even got the chance to be _human_!" Duo felt like crying from the frustration, but he made sure not to.

"You should be grateful Duo!"

To everyone's surprise (and Heero's amusement) Hilde was the one who was being defiant, and had a stubborn frown. "If it wasn't for Sally and I, Thomas would be... Thomas would have died. We waited as long as possible, but he got the Black Death and he was in the final stages, so there if we hadn't acted Thomas would be buried in the garden."

The only sound was Hilde's labored breathing from the yelling, but Duo knew he couldn't say anything. It was all his fault Thomas had gotten infected, because he hadn't been careful and so Hilde and Sally chose the only option they had available. Instead of saying anything more he turned quietly to Heero, "I think I'm ready now."

----

Neither of the women understood initially what Duo had said, but the realization dawned on them. Heero didn't say anything to Duo, at least nothing Hilde or Sally could hear, but the half-vampire left the room.

As soon as the door closed Hilde suddenly blurted, "Master Heero, Sally and I want to leave. Now that we're partners we've decided that we want our own place to call home."

Of course the two of them hadn't spoken about it.

And of course Heero didn't even ponder telling them no.

----

Silence was the only company that Quatre had as he sat alone in the tiny room. All of its detached furniture mocking him as the blonde knew that right now he was just like every piece of furniture in this room. It looked nice, but it honestly had no owner which basically meant this furniture was all alone.

Unlike the furniture though, Quatre knew that if he just waited a little while, and proved how important Trowa was to him... that soon he wouldn't be alone anymore. Standing up and looking out at the darkness of the night Quatre knew that he had to at least go back and tell Heero and Duo something.

It wouldn't be fair to just disappear without a single word to either of them. So he prepared himself for the trip back to the castle knowing as soon as he told them that he most likely wouldn't see them for a long while.

That made Quatre hesitate, yet he knew Duo would understand and most definitely Heero would understand. He was out the door in a few seconds and heading straight for the place that would no longer be his home after tonight as he would find a new place. A place just for him and Trowa.

----

When Duo woke up he realized his entire body felt different and the next thing he realized was that Heero was sitting on the edge of the bed. It almost looked like he was protecting Duo from some unknown danger in their own castle, but then Duo was able to tell he'd been waiting the entire time. Since he didn't know how long Heero had been sitting there Duo was hesitant to disturb him. Already he was such a bother, and Heero looked like he was contemplating something truly important.

Suddenly cobalt blue eyes were meeting amethyst, and Duo smiled sheepishly. "How long have I been out?"

"It's only been one day, but it was the longest day of my life." Heero said it so seriously that Duo didn't really think about how cheesy he would've thought it was if anyone else had said it. Instead he just grinned and sat up.

Eagerly Duo reached out and grabbed Heero and pulled him back to where he was lying next to Duo. Neither of them spoke as the reality really set in, that they would be together like this, for the rest of eternity. Before anything else could happen Heero kissed his partner fiercely on the lips, and Duo returned the kiss. For the moment neither of them were concerned about anything else, because in that moment the world was theirs and no one else was in it.

Yet Heero pulled away abruptly, and Duo tried not to seem too desperate to go back to what they were doing. "Quatre came by while you were out. He wanted to tell us that he wasn't going to return for a while. He said he'd found his partner, and was just waiting for the opportunity for when they could truly become partners for eternity. Speaking of which... I wanted to let you know Hilde and Sally are partners as well, and they're thinking about finding their own home. Which means we'll need to find a new chef..."

Duo didn't let Heero speak anymore, and instead pulled Heero into another hurried kiss before getting out of the lush bed. He grabbed Heero's hand and forced the vampire to follow him out of the room and down the hall.

Before he even opened the door, Thomas threw the opened the door and looked up at Duo. The boy was smiling, and he didn't even show the contempt that usually showed whenever Heero was nearby, and Duo just took Thomas' hand along with Heero's knowing they were going to have a _long_ eternity ahead of them.

----

**As a writer, my biggest challenge that I've had for just about everything I've written is the ending. _Especially_ when it comes to these long series I write, I always have a lot of trouble making an ending that satisfies both you readers and myself. Hopefully this time it's different and that this is a pretty good ending.**

**So basically this is the end of _Vampire Love Child, _but I'm thinking later on I may continue the series again. I guess it just depends on how the rest of the semester goes for me. **

**Hope this series was enjoyable for everyone!**

**Please R & R! (one last time!)**

**Shari Maxwell**


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